Psychic No Exorcist
by AJLuvsFiction
Summary: When a new student joins Yukio's class, it turns out to be a childhood friend of Rin and Yukio's, who has moved back to where the three grew up together to become an Exorcist, after being forced to move away years ago! Rated T for Blood, Violence, and mild cursing. (Any artwork of the OC would be much appreciated, and everyone has my complete permission to do so!)
1. Good to be back

Chapter 1 - Good to be back

_The following story takes place after the series, and features an original character that doesn't exist in the manga or anime adaptions and features characters owned by _**Kazue Kato**_._

Aki Oshiro was not your typical 15-year-old boy. He had always been shy around others, and was always unmistakably different. One of these differences comes from his current goal in life: to become an Exorcist. In the past two weeks, Aki's grandfather had passed away, as his only living guardian after the death of Aki's parents at the hand of a demon, he had to have some idea about what to do with himself, or talks of a foster home would likely become true. A week or so after his grandfather's death, the grieving boy received a phone call on a Tuesday morning from a man who called himself Mephisto, who told him on the phone that shortly before his death, Aki's grandfather had made a deal with Mephiso and a Shiro Fujimoto, a name that Aki had last heard when he was 8-years-old, that in the event that Aki was ever left alone, he had the option to come to True Cross Academy to train to be an exorcist. This very deal had been offered to Aki in the past when he was a child, and the reason Aki had ever-so-suddenly been moved away from his home and also his best friends, Rin and Yukio Okumura. It was Friday when Aki finally decided it was time to make a decision, to do something his grandfather never thought he was strong enough to do. The blond haired boy dialed the number, one he had memorized by heart by now.

"Is this Mephisto? I'll do it."

Aki now found himself standing in a large hallway, a sight that took him by surprise considering he had opened the doorway to what should have been a bathroom. Aki received instructions that come Monday; he should use a key given to him by Mephisto Pheles to attend what was called the Cram School, which of course had confused Aki before he had seen it before his very eyes.

_Come on, Aki! Pull yourself together! Shiro said you could do this, just get to class and get it over with. Oh, wonderful, I'm talking to myself again..._

Aki sighed as his internal dialogue came to an end, and forced himself to stand outside of his classroom door, a classroom he was too nervous to enter. Aki stood, his hand hovering over the handle, before taking a deep breathe, double checking he had all of his things, and slowly turned the handle...

-Meanwhile, in the classroom-

Yukio Okumura, the youngest teacher at the Exorcist Cram School, and a Senior Exorcist First Class was giving a lesson on dangerous herbs to use in medicine, as his older brother, Rin Okumura, was fast asleep in the front of the class as usual.

"Nii-san… Could you at least pretend to hear what I'm saying?"

"H-huh? Uh, yeah! Don't touch the pointy parts if you want to live, got it."

"Of course you do… Any questions, class?"

It was at this moment that the class suddenly got quiet, disturbed by a knocking and opening of their classroom door, something that very rarely happens. Aki took a deep breath as he stepped inside, his eyes glued to the ground as he stated his purpose.

"E-Excuse me… I'm Aki Oshiro, I'm supposed to transfer to this class. I- I have a note if you need it…" As Aki reached into his jacket pocket to grab the note, he took his first glance around the room, and recognized two very familiar faces.

" H-Hey... Is that you Rin? Yukio? Do you remember me? I know it's been a long time... but-" Aki stopped himself, embarrassed slightly in fear that he had made a mistake, or that this was in fact the same boys he was friends with in the past that could no longer remember him.

Rin was shocked, but that faded quickly as a large grin spread on his face, as he recognized the new student as his best friend from childhood he had met in the third grade, a friend who had to move away suddenly when Rin was 8, he very quickly hid his tail under his shirt.

"Aki? Like, bullied in third grade Aki? I think I beat up some kid for pushing you on the playground, right?" Rin asked with a grin, surprised and happy to see Aki again after so many years.

"Yeah, you did! I don't think he ever made eye contact with me again, probably thought he'd get another fist to the back of the head." Aki laughed before proceeding with what were some very hard words to say. Explaining his situation to others made everything feel more real to him somehow.  
"Uh, I'm here because Grandpa passed away two weeks ago, and the only option I had besides going to a foster home or something was to move into a dorm. Mephisto-san told me that apparently, your dad made arrangements for me to attend True Cross if I ever wanted to, so after Granddad's funeral, that's what I decided to do..." Aki looked a bit sad to remember Shiro and talk about his recently deceased Grandfather, but was so glad to see Rin and Yukio again.

"T-Thanks. I'm sorry about your grandpa. Did you say Dad set you up here? Why?" Rin asked with confusion.

"This school is actually the reason I was moved away, Father Fujimoto wanted me to go into training to be an Exorcist, but when my Grandpa found out he was upset that I would be in danger… so he moved us away. I really didn't want to, and I've spent the last few years really missing this place..." Aki let out a sigh, and suddenly didn't feel like talking about this personal stuff anymore.

Yukio spoke up, saving Aki from having to share any more of what seemed a rather painful past, and finally regaining his teacher-like persona, decided to regain control of the class.

"Well, I'm glad to have you here and I look forward to talking more with you later, just find a seat anywhere, and I'll do my best to get you caught up over the next week or so."

"S-Sure, thanks…" Aki smiled and made his way over to an empty seat behind Rin and a blonde girl whose name he did not know. Shortly after he sat down, the blonde introduced herself in a whisper.

"Hi, my name is Shiemi. It's nice to meet a friend of Rin's." Rin blushed slightly at Shiemi talking about him as if he wasn't there, but hid the fact by facing forward to hear Yukio continue his lecture on plants not to be used in medicine.

"It's very nice to meet you too, Shiemi." Aki said blushing slightly, nervous to have everyone intrigued with his arrival. As attention gradually refocused onto Yukio's lesson, the young teacher spoke up.

"Well, we're almost out of time anyway, so why not get to know our new classmate? Aki, would you mind sharing what Meister you are training for?"

"U-Uh, yeah. I've begun training as a Dragoon and a Tamer. I was put into a short little boot camp-like thing to find out what kind of combat style I had, so I've had some slight target practice with these pistols they gave me. I've only summoned a demon once though... so I've been meaning to practice..." Aki motioned to the two pistols he wore in holsters at his sides, and also brought out one of his Magic Circle sheets, just to assure that he was in fact a Tamer.

"Excellent, that makes you a Tamer along with Kamiki-san, Moriyama-san, and Takara-kun, nice to know we don't have a shortage. With that, I will say class dismissed. See you all tomorrow for some basic combat training, we can take that opportunity to see just what you can do, Aki-kun."

With that, nameless faces began grabbing their bags before everyone walked over and introduced themselves to Aki, not wanting to seem rude on his first day here, Aki just smiled and did his best to store the names in his memory, he was much calmer about moving to this school now that he'd actually met his classmates. Shiemi, Izumo, Shima, Ryuji, Konekomaru, and Takara made their way out of the door, leaving Aki alone with the twins to catch up lost time.

"So, Aki, could you continue your story about why you had to leave?" Yukio asked, anxious to hear what this had to do with his late father.

"Ah, well you see… Remember those weird episodes I had when we were kids? How I sometimes knew we would have a quiz in school, or thought someone was going to get bullied that day?"

"Yeah, I always kind of thought you were just messing with me..." Rin answered, wondering where this was going.

"No, actually. I… I have this power, that let's me see things." Aki shuffled his feet nervously, not wanting to seem like a freak and have Yukio and Rin want to start avoiding him.

"Power?" Yukio asked, more interested than afraid.

"Yes. Father Fujimoto called it Clairvoyance, a rare gift from God to see glimpses into the future. I never saw it as a gift at all, but he said I could use it to help a lot of people as an Exorcist. I really wanted to, but my Grandpa said it was too dangerous and wouldn't let Father FUjimoto talk to me about it anymore. He moved us away to keep me out of the whole Exorcism business, but he couldn't hide the power that I had… I decided to follow Father Fujimoto's wishes after all, so I came here!"

Rin was a bit stunned, and felt a bit more comfortable that he wasn't the only one who had a secret… One he would have to share with Aki too, and that wasn't the most appealing idea to him at the moment.

"Anyway, I'm just really glad that you two haven't changed very much... I am a bit surprised that Yukio is a teacher, I mean... I always thought you would be, just not when you're still 15!" Aki laughed, getting to talk to Rin and Yukio like nothing had ever changed was really helping him forget about his nervousness about discussing his Clairvoyance, the laughter was soon returned by Rin and Yukio returned as the three made their way out into the hall.

"Hey, while I've got you both here… Can you tell me where to find this dorm?" Aki asked, handing a sheet of paper to Yukio with the dorm number on it.

"You're in the same dorm as us! You can just follow Nii-san and I, you appear to be on the floor above us."

"That's great! Gives us more time to catch up, huh?" Aki replied, before suddenly stopping and leaning against the wall. Aki's eyes, normally one a light blue, and the other a light green; now both had a faint white glow.

"A-Aki?! What is happening, are you all right?" Rin yelled as he shook Aki lightly in order to try and bring his focus back. As the glow passed, Aki regained control of himself before finally saying:

"We have to hurry! Suguro-kun might be in danger, and we have to get to his dorm, immediately." Aki was nearly out of breath, but managed to get his point across that he was deadly serious. Rin and Yukio exchanged a confused glance before they both decided to trust Aki on this one, as they ran out of the Cram School building and headed towards the True Cross Boy's Dorm, hoping it wasn't already too late.

_End of Chapter 1_

_[ I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I feel like the story gets much better from Ch. 3 on-wards, so please give it a chance!]_


	2. The Demon and the Prophet

**Chapter 2: The Demon and the Prophet**

* * *

Rin, Yukio, and Aki were running as fast as they could, to get to Ryuji before he could be attacked. As they ran, Yukio and Aki already had their firearms at the ready, a sight that at first surprised Rin, but now was not the time to talk about it. Much like Yukio, Aki was sporting two dual pistols, pretty standard weaponry for Dragoons, as Rin had his sword sheathe outside of his red carrying case, prepared to draw it at a moment's notice.

_What happens if this thing attacks? Can I really draw the sword in front of Aki? I haven't had the time to explain anything to him yet! What if he freaks out when he learns that I'm a demon?!_

Rin thought to himself, clearly nervous by the look on his face, and his glances at Aki. Yukio seemed to read Rin's mind, as he looked at Rin and nodded, which Rin assumed was a way of saying "It's okay, he'd have to find out sooner or later."

The trio had finally made their way into the boy's dorm doors, once inside, Shima and Konekomaru were sitting on the stairs, reading textbooks.

"Oh, hey guys, all caught up on old times?" Konekomaru asked kindly before noticing the tense mood in the air.

"Have you seen Suguro-kun? We have a feeling he could be in danger!" Yukio shouted, more worried than he intended to sound.

"What?! The last time I saw Bon was in his room, we'll take you there." Shima answered quickly, standing up and making his way up the stairs, nearly running for fear of his friend being hurt.

"Hey, someone help me!" A lone cry escaped from upstairs.

"Bon!" Shima yelled and the group quickly raced up the stairs, only to see Ryuji surrounded by three Naberiuses, demons in the form of deceased dogs, outside of his dorm room door. Aki could see a chunk missing from Ryuji's pants, and a small trail of blood running from it. Aki suddenly dashed into action, quickly bringing a knee into the skull of the closest hellhound, as it lunged forward to sink it's fangs into Ryuji some more… Then, delivering a final shot to the head, Aki watched the demon disintegrate into nothing.

"Are you alright, Suguro-kun?" Aki asked as he stood between a now very hungry looking demon, and it's next potential meal.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine, just a small bite. Why are you all here? "

Rin took this opportunity to unsheathe his sword, revealing his demon flames and features, using this sudden burst of flame to give him more momentum in his leap towards the remaining Naberius, finishing it off by thrusting Kurikara into the demon's ribcage. To Rin's surprise, Aki wasn't afraid by this, or even shocked for that matter, before Rin could ask about this, another Naberius smashed through the window beside Shima, as Shima let out a yell. The demon's life was short-lived as Yukio sent a bullet through its brain, clearing the room of all danger, for now.

As the panic subsided, the room was littered with shattered glass, and six Exorcists full of adrenaline. Rin sheathed Kurikara again, causing his demon features to recede back into Gehenna until they were needed again. Ryuji picked himself up from the ground, letting out a groan as the panic faded and he began to feel the effects of the bite on his leg.

"Don't move around too much until I've taken care of that, alright?" Yukio said as he grabbed a few painkillers and bandages he kept on hand in case of an emergency.

"You know, Aki. It's a really good thing you have that gift, without it, Suguro-kun could have been fatally wounded here." Yukio said, hoping to make Aki feel more comfortable with the situation.

"Y-Yeah, Aki, you kicked ass!" Rin exclaimed with his usual cheerful attitude, before Rin took on a more serious tone to ask what had been nagging at him since the battle had ended.

"Aki, How come you didn't seem surprised to see my demon flames…?"

"Mephisto-san filled me in on a lot. I don't really care if you're a demon or not Rin, because you're my friend, and what kind of a friend would I be if I just ditched you over something like that?"

Rin smiled, his fears of rejection disappearing, like they did when his classmates learned to accept his little secret. Shima and Konekomaru helped Ryuji stand up, letting him lean on them for support without putting too much strain on his bandaged leg. The Exorcists made their way back down the stairs, heading to the nearest infirmary to give Yukio more room to work in order to treat Ryuji. Once inside, Ryuji rested as Yukio cleaned the area around his bite and the other boys tried to entertain themselves with idle chit-chat.

"Hey, I've always wanted to say this, okay? AND THE DAY IS SAVED!" Aki exclaimed, striking his best superhero pose that he could manage, which caused Rin to laugh loudly before the rest of the room joined in.

"You know, it's really great to have you back." Rin said, still smiling from the laughing fit.

"It's pretty great to be back. I hated having to move in the first place." Aki replied, starting to feel tired after the day's events. The twins and Aki waved goodbye to Ryuji, Shima, and Konekomaru, as Konekomaru reassured them that him and Shima could take care of Ryuji for now.

With that, the nightmare was over. Aki had overcome his fear of joining a new school, being able to make new friends as well as find lost ones. Rin's constant fear of being rejected was dulled by the fact that people like Aki were out there, and Rin's new philosophy was that all he needed to do was find them.

Aki looked back on the events of the day as he lay in his new dorm room, smiling at what he was able to accomplish. Sleep befell him quickly, after the exhaustion of fighting off the Naberiuses, he dreamed of how he acted back at his old school and reassured himself that this time he would be different.

_Maybe this whole moving thing won't be so bad after all._


	3. Maybe I'm cut out for this after all

**Chapter 3: Maybe I'm cut out for this after all**

* * *

Aki Oshiro was now fumbling around, searching for the snooze button on his alarm clock. The boy had forgotten about the Combat Training Camp that Yukio was putting them through that day, and he was very anxious to see what it would be like. Aki walked over to his dresser, quickly changing into the standard True Cross jacket and a comfortable pair of jeans. Aki also wore his favorite T-shirt under his jacket, which had a colorful paint splatter print.

As Aki grabbed his bag and guns, he heard a knock at the door.

"Yo, Aki… You awake in there? We have camp today." Aki heard his good friend: Rin Okumura on the other side of the door, as he slipped his Magic Circle papers into his jean pocket, he opened the door.

"Yeah, I remembered! Shall we?" Aki replied as he shut the door behind him, the two boys made excited conversation as they both made wild guesses about the things that would happen at camp. Right as they were both agreeing that they wanted to see a gigantic monster as a training drill, their teacher, and Rin's younger brother, Yukio Okumura appeared behind them.

"You two ready for camp today?" Yukio asked with a smile, he was carrying a clipboard with activities for the day planned, but instead of share, he would rather let Rin and Aki wait a little longer to see what the day entailed.

"Uh, yeah! But, what am I going to do? Am I really ready for anything since I joined so late?" Aki asked, a little more than afraid.

"Nonsense, I saw how you handled yourself during that fight with the Naberiuses, you will be fine!" Yukio responded genuinely.

"A-Awesome!" Aki exclaimed as he picked up the pace and started running to class, excited to get this camp thing started. Rin quickly caught up with him, and Yukio decided he would rather walk.

Meanwhile, in class, Izumo and Shiemi were already waiting, with Ryuji, Shima, and Konekomaru making their way in the door. Within a few minutes, the entire class had arrived and Yukio was gathering them outside to head out into the forest, where they had taken a test before that involved carrying Peg Lanterns, giant living lantern demons, from inside the forest into their camp. Seeing the old campsite again had the group whispering about what the trip entailed this time, considering the last time they were here, Amaimon the Earth King had attacked them. Inside the camp site were several cages filled with varying types of demons, as well as dummies and targets scattered among the trees.

"Okumura-sensei, exactly what are doing here today?" Izumo Kamiki asked what all of the kids had been thinking.

"We will be testing all of your combat skills in various situations, we have targets and dummies for some warm-ups, and will eventually move onto fighting these low level demons that we have in these cages. Do not worry, if anything happens to go wrong, Kirigakure-sensei, or myself will be there to take care of it." Yukio explained and reassured to everyone that nothing would go wrong, right as Shura stepped out from the trees.

"Ey, Yukio, got yourself a newbie, huh?" Shura asked, interested in the new classmate standing next to Rin.

"H-Hello, my name is Aki." Aki answered, not wanting to be impolite. Yukio stepped forward, motioning to a practice dummy, in the form of a two-headed ghoul, a demon the class was definitely familiar with.

"Aki-kun, would you mind taking a few hits on this dummy? I'd like to be able to help you with your aim and technique if I could, and this may also be an excellent opportunity to summon that demon of yours."

Aki was startled that he was the one to go first, but not wanting to be rude to Yukio, he accepted and stepped forward. Aki took a few deep breaths, and grabbed his Magic Circle sheet, pulling a pin out of his bag; he stuck himself lightly in the thumb, creating a bead of crimson. Aki closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating, before finally reopening them with a new sense of determination. The nervousness was gone, now was the time to show how capable he really was.

Aki swiped his thumb across the sheet before chanting

"_Fly my prayers into the mighty winds, May the Holy Storm strike down those who oppose Him!"_

When Aki finished his chant, a swirling whirlwind appeared before them all, and a dark, demon raven was left behind. The demon was called a Gale, or it at least belonged in the same family as one. The bird's dark red eyes began searching for answers and spoke up.

"Who has summoned me here?! I demand answers."

"I did." Aki was much more confident than he ever was before, any fear for the demon before him was entirely hidden or non-existent.

"Lies! A puny mortal such as yourself could never hope to control me." The demon shouted in anger. Aki didn't even flinch, something the demon was counting on.

"Say what you like. You belong to me, and will as long as I live. Now, obey me, because I would hate to see a bullet pass through that pretty beak of yours…" Aki threatened, nobody in the area could tell if he was bluffing, and Rin was confident he was totally serious.

Aki reached for both pistols, tossing them into the air and catching them, before turning them onto the dummy. Aki looked into the demon bird's eyes, communicating telepathically what had to be done. Aki shot two rounds into the heads of the dummy in quick succession.

_Bull's-eye._

The bird swooped down onto the dummy, slicing it into pieces with sharp talons, before Aki finished the job by rushing into the fray to deliver a powerful flying kick into the dummy's stand, shattering it and sending the crumpled mass onto the ground. Aki then snapped and the bird's wings fluttered as a strong gust of wind launched the dummy's remains flying into the trees, far above everyone's heads. The rest of the class was utterly stunned, totally not expecting such power and control over a demon as powerful as a Gale. Finally, Yukio spoke up.

"T-That was spectacular, Aki-kun!" Yukio began clapping and the applause spread, Aki then snapped out of his seeming trance before saying quietly:

"You're dismissed." Then, the bird demon vanished into the winds, as Aki collapsed from the exhaustion of all he had just done.

"Aki!" Rin shouted as the class ran over to check if Aki was alright, they found him lying on the ground, grinning.

"I… I did it! I really did it! That thing actually listened to me!" Giggling from excitement, Aki looked at everyone and told them he would be just fine, and only needed a little rest.

"You sure you're okay? I mean, you don't have to act all macho if you're hurt or something!" Ryuji spoke up, clearly worried that Aki had hurt himself.

"Really, I'm fine. Just really tired, that's all. Now, anyone care to follow my performance?" Aki winked as he looked around for any potential takers, when there were none, the entire class began laughing again.

_Jeez, is this really the same kid that everyone picked on? That I was always protecting? Guess we've both changed a lot, huh?_

Rin thought to himself before Aki stood back up, although a little out of breath, he was alright. Yukio took this opportunity to continue the training, eventually bringing Rin out in order to do some flame exercises, which mainly resulted in some melted candles. The last important goal of the day was searching for some offensive capability of Shiemi's familiar.

"Nee-chan… Could you bring some thorns out for me please? That dummy over there is trying to hurt me…" Shiemi said softly to her familiar, trying to coax some anger out of it. Suddenly, the infant greenman sent out three sharp thorny spikes into the dummy's chest, causing a portion of it to collapse into itself.

"Nee-chan! That was wonderful! Thank you so much!" Shiemi showered the tiny familiar with praise before planting a kiss on it's forehead.

With that, the sky had turned dark and besides a few Aria exercises, the camp was over for the night. The tired group of Exorcists made their way out of the forest and made their way back to their own dorms. Right as they had reached the path back to school, Izumo looked as if something had been bothering her and decided to get something off of her chest.

"You know how reckless that was back there? With that crazy bird?" Izumo said, very annoyed.

"H-Huh? I just didn't know how to use it, it was kinda hard to hold back..." Aki replied defensively, and slightly afraid.

"D-Don't worry Aki-kun! That's just how Izumo expresses worry, she's a lot nicer than she looks. Promise!" Konekomaru yelled quickly as he opened the Boy's Dorm door.

"Nicer than I- Hey, you get back here!" Izumo responded furiously.

"Look, I'm sorry. Do you think you could teach me how to control the demon?" Aki asked, hoping to correct his mistake.

"Huh? I-I guess I could give you some pointers... T-Tomorrow in class or something...!" Izumo answered before running off to her dorm, with Shiemi trailing behind with Yukio's Supply Shop key in her hand. After opening the portal, Yukio takes his key back, waves his goodbyes to Shiemi, and heads back to his own dorm with Rin and Aki.

"That was so much fun! I should beat the tar out of fake demons more often…" Aki joked before Rin nodded.

"How did you manage to do so much with that demon? You're really strong, dude." Rin said with a smile before he went deadly silent as a familiar glow came over Aki.

"What was it this time? Is everything okay?"

"Y-Yeah… I just saw a little bit of tomorrow. It was just you and I standing in the west corridor of True Cross."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Let's just hurry back to the dorm, Aki could use some rest after today, alright?" Yukio spoke up for the first time in a good while.

The two pondered if the vision could have meant more, but could come up with nothing, before agreeing with Yukio and hurrying back to their own rooms.

"Night!" Aki yelled to the twins before collapsing onto his own bed.

_Aki thought more about the vision while in his dorm, he knew something was bothering him about it, but couldn't place a finger on it. Was it the odd silence? An answer finally came to him right before he drifted to sleep; it was the emptiness of the hallway, at a school that had hundreds and hundreds of students._

_End of Chapter 3._


	4. A Wrong Turn At Albuquerque

**Chapter 4 - A Wrong Turn At ****Albuquerque**

"So... how did you two become friends anyway?" Shiemi Moriyama asked her two good friends, Rin and Aki, as the group of young exorcists sat in class on Wednesday morning. Yukio had called the class down before True Cross Academy opened for the day, saying he had an important announcement, however, Yukio had yet to show up.

"Huh? Well..." Rin didn't quite know how to answer, especially since he thought the story was kind of embarrassing and sappy. Aki however, had another idea on the subject.

"Well, it was in the third grade..."

**/ Flashback \\**

_It was an ordinary day as a young Aki Oshiro walked into class one morning, carrying his bag with him as he made his way to his seat. A young Rin Okumura sit in the corner, away from everyone else, like he had done every other day of the year since his classmates were afraid of him. Aki noticed as a group of boys that regularly tormented him walked over to his seat, pointing at their own eyes and laughing. One of the boys threw a note that he had balled up at Aki's head with the text "Can't you just pick a color already?" in sloppy handwriting. Aki looked down at his desk, no longer wanting to make eye contact with anyone as tears welled in his eyes. _

_An hour or so later, a bell had rung, signaling the begin of recess to the class, a time all of the children were counting down the minutes for. Rin makes his way out last, waiting for the class to clear out first. As he makes his way over to the swings, Aki notices several kids clear out, not wanting to be near him. The reason why is made apparent as the boys from before begin making their way over to the swings motioning Aki to stand up. _

"Well, well, well, Freak-show likes the swings does he?" _One of the bullies taunts Aki, as he stands up, not wanting to stay around here._

"Where are you going? You don't want to talk to us? Isn't that a bit mean?" _The bullies friend joins in on the torment, making Aki even more uncomfortable._

"Please... just leave me alone. I didn't do anything..." _A scared Aki, on the verge of tears pleads with the boys before one of them walks over and pushes him down onto the floor hard._

"What? Are you scared? What a baby."

_As the bully makes his way over to a sobbing Aki, he feels a sharp pain in the back of his head as an angry Rin Okumura punches him hard on the back of the head, sending him sprawling on the ground._

"Just leave him alone. Now!" _Rin yells in his anger, sending the bullies away, running in fear. As Rin sticks his hand out for Aki to grab, the boy accepts and stands back up on his feet._

"Th-Thank you. I don't know what they would have done if you hadn't shown up..."

"Next time, defend yourself. Don't just let them pick on you!"

"O-Okay! Sorry... I just didn't want to get into fights, my Grandpa told me never to hurt people..."

"Just... not if you're gonna get hurt yourself, okay?" _Rin says over his shoulder as he walks away, with Aki close behind him._

"H-Hey! Do you think maybe we could hang out sometime? I don't have that many friends... and you're the only person that's ever been nice to me before..." _Aki asks nervously, hoping to at least make one friend._

"U-Um... I guess... No one has ever asked to be my friend before..." _Rin blushes, not knowing what you're even supposed to do with friends; as Aki leads him over to the swings. Beginning a long friendship that ends when the boys are 8, when Aki is forced to move away._

"Aww! That is so sweet!" Shiemi chirps as Rin blushes a dark red and tries to bury his head into the desk and sleep. Yukio walks into the room at this moment, and sees an embarrassed looking Rin surrounded by the rest of his students, laughing.

"Did I miss something?" Yukio asks, wondering what the laughter is all about.

"Oh, nothing much. Shiemi just asked Aki how him and Rin met." Shima responds, suppressing a giggle at Rin's attempts to hide from everyone.

"I see... Well, I have great news for you all. Since I have a meeting today with the other instructors, you're all free to do what you want today. We won't be meeting after True Cross Academy lets out today!"

Rin suddenly stands straight up before hollering in excitement as he rushes out the door, the rest of the kids are stunned and quickly follow his lead. Since Aki and Rin have History class together, Aki manages to catch up to Rin right outside of the door. Rin barely managed to stay awake during the class, and that was only due to the occasional pinch that Aki gave him.

"Ow! Would you stop that..." Rin growled as quietly as he could.

"We have a test today, so you have to stay awake, okay?" Aki whispered in reply before the test was passed back to both of them. While bubbling in any of the answers that seemed familiar to him, Rin thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Outside the window, Rin saw an odd shadowy figure floating past a window in the west wing.

"Something wrong, Okumura-kun?" asked a confused History teacher.

"Oh, sorry. Just distracted by something outside, it won't happen again." Rin replied quickly, trying to make sense of what he thought he had just seen.

"Hey, what was that whole thing about in class? Did you see something outside?" Aki asked after class had let out, wondering why Rin was acting so spacey afterwards.

"It looked like a... like a demon." Rin answered, careful not to let anyone hear him.

"What? Where?!" Aki was shocked, he hadn't expected to see any demons around True Cross, this place was supposed to be protected.

"Near the West Wing... it passed by a window. At least I think..." Rin answered partially confused, struggling to recall exactly how the figure looked.

_The west wing? Like in my vision?! Perhaps that vision was a warning to stay AWAY from the West Wing...?_

Aki thought to himself, not wanting his doubts to spread to Rin. Eventually when he saw Rin heading into the direction of the supposed demon sighting, he reached out and grabbed his shoulder, holding him back.

"Where are you going? We have other classes, Rin."

"Well, I can't just leave the demon to run around, can I?"

"Look, lunch isn't very far away, alright? Let's just wait until then and then we can both go check it out."

Rin didn't look happy with that idea, but agreed to it anyway. The teenage demon waved goodbye to his friend as he headed off to his next class, anxiously awaiting lunch time in order to track that demon down.

Lunch was as noisy as usual, tons of kids piling into the cafeteria to purchase their lunches and sit down. Shiemi saw Rin out of the corner of her eye and waved him down to sit. Izumo and Shima had already eaten their lunches and were seated at the table looking rather bored, while Ryuji and Konekomaru were walking back with their lunches.

"Oh, hey guys." Rin waved to his friends, but didn't take his eyes off of the exit of the room.

"Something wrong, man?" Shima asked, hoping for something interesting to happen to save him from his boredom.

"I guess you could say that... I think I saw a demon out of the window in History today. Aki and I are supposed to go check it out..." Rin answered scanning the room for the blond psychic, ultimately coming up with nothing.

"Sorry I'm late!" Aki yelled as he ran towards the table, he was carrying a bag with him that contained his guns and ammunition, in order to conceal his weapons from the non-exorcists.

"Whoa, you guys are actually going to go do this? What if lunch ends and you're still out fighting who-knows-what?" Ryuji asked, sounding irritated with Rin's tendency of rushing off again.

"I promise we'll be fine, okay? If we were in huge amounts of danger, I'm sure I would have seen it." Aki said, pointing at his blue eye for emphasis, before motioning for Rin to hurry up as he walked towards the west wing.

"Just be careful you two, or I'll have to call Okumura-sensei on you both!" Izumo yelled towards the two boys, who were on the hunt for trouble.

Shiemi sighed as she walked Rin walk away, one of his hands lying on the sheathe to his demon sword, Kurikara.

_'Please stay safe Rin... for me...'_

Aki and Rin made their way into the hallway Rin was sure he had seen the demon. Aki felt weird here, and he couldn't explain it. Something about this place just suddenly felt... **off**.

"Rin... Is it just me or is something wrong here?"

"Wrong? Well, besides the demon that should be lingering around, I don't feel anything." The dark haired teen shrugged as he reached for his sword, ready for a fight. Without warning, Rin got exactly what he wanted, as a disturbing creature composed of two corpses, standing back to back, held together by chains appeared in the center of the hallway. The heads of the demon were rapidly twitching, and the only sound either boy could hear was the rattling of those chains.

"Oh my God... What kind of demon IS that thing?" Aki questioned with an overwhelming sense of nausea passing over him.

"I have no idea. Let's just kill it already!" Rin dashed forward, sliding Kurikara out of it sheathe in a instant as he made a powerful and quick slash from the right into the demon's right arm, causing a deep cut to form on the rotted flesh. The demon yelled out in pain before sending one of it's chains into Rin as retaliation, sending him flying backwards and crashing onto the ground.

"Rin!" Aki ran forward, pulling his unconscious friend up and leaning him against a wall.

"Alright you bastard, bring it on!" Aki dashed forward, pistols at the ready. He fired several shots into the demon's torso before it send another long chain towards Aki's feet. The young exorcist jumped backwards, avoiding the devastating chains. Noticing the bullets appeared ineffective, he aimed at the demon's head. Aki ran behind the demon in an attempt to get a better angle, and saw something that could be the key to winning this battle. In the middle of the demon's back, lay a beating heart wrapped in chains.

"A-Aki?" Rin asked in a daze as he finally came to.

"You alright?" Aki asked dodging another chain whip from the raging corpse before running back onto the other side of the room, to check on Rin. Save for a small trail of blood flowing from Rin's forehead, he was entirely fine.

"Any idea how to beat this thing?" The annoyed demon asked, reaching up to touch the blood on his forehead.

"I think so... It has a heart in the middle of it's back. Maybe if we hit it...?"

"Sounds like a fair guess if you ask me."

"Alright Rin, I have a plan. I'll run at the demon and keep it distracted, you stab the heart."

Rin nodded in approval of the reckless plan, anxious to kill this thing once and for all, still pissed from the injury it gave him. Rin's flames flared stronger than ever as he dashed past the demon, waiting for the right moment to strike. Aki fired a few shots into the demon's head, hoping to draw it's attention before he quickly ran out of ammo. Aki re-holstered his pistols as he ran full speed at the demon, leaping into the air and delivering a round house kick with his right foot into the demon's skull. Either the demon was hurt, or the demon was pissed, because it quickly began charging at Aki as soon as he landed back on the ground.

"Aw, sh-"

Raising it's arms to wrap it's cold, bloodless fingers around Aki's throat caused the chains encasing the heart to loosen, giving Rin the chance he needed. Rin made a mad dash towards the demon, before leaping into the air and driving the demon sword deep into the heart, his flames nearly exploding as it made contact. Blue flames surrounded the screeching corpse before the demon wrapped itself in chains and vanished before Rin's eyes.

"D-Damn it! Get back here!" Rin yelled into the empty hall. Aki struggled to breathe for a few moments before his coughing fit subsided.

"Did you get it?" Aki coughed again, before looking around the empty hall and seeing Rin kick a wall in his anger.

_Empty._

"Shit! We almost had it!"

"Rin! I know what it was now!"

"What?"

"The thing that had been bothering me. We're entirely alone here. Doesn't that strike you as odd? Considering it's still the middle of the school day?"

"Come to think of it... The lunch bell hasn't even rang."

"Exactly. Rin... I don't think we're in True Cross anymore. Or at least, not the real one."

Understanding dawned in the dark-haired teen's eyes as he looked around with a new view of the world around him. Aki pulled out his cell phone and checked the time.

"Rin... My phone says it is now 11:47 PM, the exact same time when we left the cafeteria."

"You're telling me time hasn't passed at all during our fight with that thing?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

Approximately thirty minutes has passed since Aki Oshiro had last checked his cell phone clock, yet the time still boldly displayed 11:47 PM. Both boys were confused about where they were, and what this odd time warp meant. Aki suddenly noticed a change in his screen, one that had remained entirely static for far too long.

"Rin! My signal bars came back!" Aki yelled excitedly, hoping if he could call somebody, he could get him and Rin out of here. Wherever 'here' was.

"Really?! Call Shiemi then!"

"Shiemi? Why Shiemi? I thought we could ask Yukio about that demon we saw..."

"Because I need to know if she's okay, make sure that demon didn't attack her too. I-I mean... I want to make sure everyone is okay, y'know? Maybe they're all in some alternate world too...!"

"Sure, whatever you say, Lover-boy." Aki teased Rin as he dialed the number, before Rin blushed a bright red and punched Aki playfully on the shoulder.

"Shut-up!"

"Ow, damn it! Oh- Hey Shiemi!"

"A-Aki? Is that you? Where in the world are you two? I've been worried sick!"

"We're okay... Well, it depends what you mean by okay... Look, we found that demon and we chased it off. But, I think we're stuck in some sort of illusion. Right now Rin and I are in the west wing, but we're entirely alone..."

"West wing? Aki, that's where I am now. I don't see you or Rin at all."

"Then I guess that confirms it... Can you do me a favor and ask Yukio about this? Maybe he can do something to get us out on your end."

"I can do that just fine, but... Why didn't you just call Yukio in the first place?"

Aki pressed the phone closer to his lips so he wouldn't be overheard by Rin, who was listening in from a few feet away.

"Be-Because Rin wanted to know if you were okay."

"He... He did? Really?" Shiemi was giggling happily, before she said her goodbyes to Aki and Rin and skipped away to find Yukio. A now very impatient Okumura finally stood up from his resting spot against the Not So True Cross wall before asking:

"Well? What did she say?"

"She said she was okay. She was worried about us."

"She was?" Rin smiled at the fact, but quickly turned the smile off for fear of Aki teasing him about his crush on Shiemi any further.

"She also said that she is standing in the west wing as we speak, and she can't see either of us."

"So we really are in some freaky alternate dimension? Damn, now I REALLY want to kick this thing's ass!"

Shiemi found herself sneaking around True Cross, classes had just ended and all she wanted to do was find a door where should could use her Cram School key without being seen. After stumbling upon the girl's bathroom and looking all around, Shiemi inserted the golden key into the lock and opened the door. Staring into the great hall once again, Shiemi made a mad dash to Yukio's classroom, determined to save Rin and Aki.

"I'm hoping that this concludes today's mee- Shiemi? What are you doing here?" Yukio asked, surprised to see Shiemi at this hour, especially since he told everyone he had a meeting today.

"Ri... Rin and Aki are in trouble! They went after a demon at True Cross during lunch and they never came back!"

"What?!"

"A-Aki called me and said that they were still in True Cross... but stuck in some alternate dimension... Any idea what that means?" Shiemi asked, desperate for answers as she tried to catch her breath.

"Did you say alternate dimension?"

Yukio and Shiemi were now equipped in their Exorcist attire, Shiemi had a Magic Circle sheet in hand, prepared to summon Nee-chan whenever it was necessary.

"Can you hear that Yukio? It sounds like... screaming!" Shiemi whispered to Yukio, afraid about the weird echos that seemed to come from the room itself.

"Gah! L-Let go of me you chained up freak!"

"Nii-san!"

Suddenly, before their very eyes, a strange vortex appeared in the center of the room. Through the vortex, Shiemi could see Rin being strangled by a terrifying demon, with Aki unconscious on the floor beside him.

"Rin! NO!" Shiemi jumped through the vortex, calling for Nee-chan as the world around her shrunk and re-grew to normal size. Desperate to save Rin, Shiemi focused really hard and hoped Nee-chan knew what she wanted. Large, spiky vines suddenly grew from the familiar's body, surrounding the demon in chains as Rin kicked out of it's deadly grasp. All that was left was a bloody cocoon, as the spikes dug into the creature's body.

"Alright, it's time to end this, once and for all!" Rin dashed towards the cocoon, making a powerful vertical slash right through it. The monstrosity screamed in agony and exploded into dust.

"Shiemi! Where did you go!?" Yukio asked in a panic, how could he let one of his students run off like this? He would never forgive himself if she was hurt. Suddenly, the portal reopened, and Shiemi and Rin appeared before him, with Aki still laying on the ground.

"Are you all okay? Why did you think this was a good idea, Nii-san?!"

"I-I'm sorry, Yukio! I just didn't know what to do... I was afraid that thing was going to hurt all the students here, kids who aren't exorcists! How would they even defend themselves?!"

Aki opened an eye as he heard the loud argument taking place before him.

"G-Guys? Are we back?" Aki questioned, praying that it was all over.

"Yes, everything is going to be fine!" Shiemi did her best to comfort Aki before helping him up onto his feet.

"L-Look Yukio, don't blame Rin, okay? I should have stopped him. Let's just focus on the fact that the demon is gone and True Cross is safe again, alright?"

Yukio didn't want to just let this go, but seeing that Aki was hurt and that the two had honestly done what they thought was necessary to protect the school, he let them off the hook. The four walked out into the courtyard, where the rest of Yukio's class, except for Takara, who was nowhere to be found, was waiting for them to return.

"Okumura! I told you it was a bad idea!" An angry Ryuji made his way over to Rin, looking more frightening than the demon that had attacked them in the first place.

"H-Hey! If you kill me, then how will I ever learn my lesson?!" Rin yelled over his shoulder as he ran away from the raging Ryuji, as Aki went into a laughing fit at the situation.

"What's so funny?" Rin asked, stopping in his tracks.

"Just the fact that although we were both almost killed back there, we can come back here and still manage to act as if everything was normal."

"Y-Yeah, I guess I never thought about it that way..." Rin said before starting to giggle himself, before everyone else joined in except for Izumo, who was peeking at Aki's injuries and looking furious.

"You DO know that you could have been killed, right? Just promise me you'll be more careful? I don't want to be responsible for you idiots getting yourself killed, okay?!"

"S-Sorry! I'll be more careful, I promise!" A stuttering Aki tries his best to calm Izumo down, scratching his head in confusion as a devious looking Rin made his way over to towards to the two. Rin leaned in and whispered into Aki's ear...

"Looks like I'm not the ONLY one with a crush, huh?" Laughing as Aki blushed a bright red before stuttering a goodbye to everyone and making his way back to the dorm. Shiemi asked Rin to walk her home, which he gladly did as the Exorcists called it a night.

"What am I going to do with that brother of mine? Now I also have Aki to deal with... I could have sworn that boy was more responsible. I guess Nii-san is starting to rub off on him..." A distressed Yukio said to himself as he lay in his bed at night. Rin was already fast asleep, with a textbook laying directly over his face.

"Looks like I can't expect an A out of you on the test, huh Nii-san?" Yukio chuckled before letting himself fall asleep.

_End of Chapter 4_


	5. What are you afraid of?

_The following chapter will focus on multiple realities that each of the characters are trapped in. _

It was a rainy afternoon, as Rin sat at his desk and chewed on a pen in his boredom. The rain seemed to put everybody in a drowsy mood, but Rin always had a lot of energy and wasn't affected. The bored teen sent a text to Aki, hoping for some social interaction, but never got a response back.

"Is he asleep too? Damn, I'm bored..." Rin muttered in annoyance to himself. Finally, having had enough of sitting around for at least an hour, the energetic demon opened his dorm room door and set outside, running down the hall to Aki's room. He knocked loudly on the door before yelling through to the other side.

"Hey! Wake the hell up! I'm dying of boredom!"

Rin waited a few moments for a response before he heard someone behind him.

"I'm not in there you know."

"Gah! Aki! What are you doing out here?"

"I should be asking you the same thing you know... I went out for a bit."

"In this rain? Are you crazy?"

"I went for ice cream... I didn't have anything else to do, okay?" Aki replied, shaking his umbrella at the same time, sending water onto the dorm walls, and a small splash onto his own shirt. The blond boy took a blue Popsicle out of a plastic bag and opened it excitedly.

"You know... I think I have a stash of those somewhere... Anyway, what can we do today? I'm bored out of my mind."

"un nn mm" Aki replied, with his mouth full of Popsicle, mumbling what Rin assumed was "I don't know."

"Wanna use the Cram School key? At least there would be more exciting than here..."

"Actually, we were going to have to head there anyway." a sneaky Yukio replied, appearing behind Aki from seemingly nowhere.

"Gah! Yukio?! Why is everyone sneaking up on me today?!"

"Nevermind that... But Mephisto-san sent a mass text to everyone saying we were to report to my classroom for an announcement.

"Ah, okay... I left my phone in the dorm..."

Yukio handed Rin his cellphone before the three boys made their way into Aki's room, in order to use the door as the gate to the Cram School. Upon opening the door a second time, the trio could already see Shima and Konekomaru make their way into the room, and Shiemi come in from another gateway.

"Oh, hi Rin. Aki, Yukio... How are you all today?" The cheerful girl asked, despite the gloomy weather outside.

"Fine. Just bored is all." Rin replied, as he walked into the classroom with Shiemi, leaving Aki and Yukio out in the hall.

"You alright? You seem like you don't want to go in there..." Yukio asked more than a little worried, considering Aki was also a psychic.

"Oh, it's fine. I just had a weird feeling about this... Mephisto-san doesn't usually call us in like this... I'm worried we could be in trouble." Aki laughed nervously before he walked into the classroom with Yukio behind him, but his pace was way too fast, the young teacher could tell something was still bothering him.

"I woke up on a rainy Saturday for this, Mephisto-san had better hurry." an irate Izumo voiced her annoyances at the situation, causing a few quite hums of approval from the other students. Suddenly, in a puff of smoke, the mischievous demon appeared in the center of the room.

"GOOD MORNING, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" Mephisto shouted, making the best entrance he possibly could. "I'm sure you're all wondering why I've called you here today, and the answer... is that you all have a very important test to complete!"

"W-What?! A test? Why was I not informed of this, Mephisto-san?" Yukio questioned, a bit annoyed that nobody had bothered to tell him.

"Because... You're taking part in it too. Good luck, everyone!"

"G-Good luck?! What do you mean by..." Rin asked, confused at what was going on.

"Ein... Zwei... Drei!" Mephisto chanted his usual words, in order to access his demon magic, causing all of the training exorcists and their teacher to fall asleep instantly.

* * *

/Shiemi

Shiemi woke up in a vast, beautiful forest filled with gorgeous plants and flowers of all colors of the rainbow.

"Where am I? Is this what the test is?" The blonde girl was very nervous, not wanting to be alone in this unknown place. As the training Tamer made her way farther into the forest, she noticed a beam of light that came from the sky above, standing inside that light was her grandmother, even though she had passed away years ago.

"G-Grandma? I-Is that really you?" Shiemi had tears in her eyes, so happy to see her grandma again. She blamed herself for he grandmother's death and had prayed for the chance to apologize and say her goodbyes.

"Yes, my darling, it really is me. I want you to know that I do not blame you for my death."

"I'm so sorry Grandma... I never wanted this to happen to you... I just wanted to find the Garden of Amahara so badly... That it cost you your life!"

"But, Shiemi, you did find the Garden, you're here now, aren't you?"

"This is the Garden of Amahara?! That must be why it's so beautiful!" Shiemi couldn't stop smiling, no matter how hard she tried. She hugged her Grandma tightly before walking over to pick a beautiful flower, one she had never seen before. The flower looked much like a rose, but had the most vibrant pink and white colors swirling around it. She placed the flower into her hair before making her way back to her Grandmother, not noticing the speck of black decay that had grown suddenly on the flowers next to the one she had picked.

* * *

/Yukio

The brown haired teacher awoke in a dark room, one that was filled with a swirl of color and darkness. As his vision cleared, it became obvious that he was standing in the monastery where he had grown up, except there was nobody else to be found.

"Yukio! Where arrrreee you?" A voice, sounding much like Rin's called out to Yukio, except this voice sounded different, and Yukio couldn't place a finger on why.

"Nii-san?! Are you alright? Why are we at the monastery?"

"I'm not sure Yukio... a better question would be... "What does it feel like to be impaled in the chest?" The Rin-like voice began chuckling like a maniac, before Rin himself leaped from the darkness with Kurikara unsheathed and pointed at Yukio.

"Nii-san? What has gotten into you?" Yukio was shocked, but finally noticed that Rin looked different, his usual demon features had become much more demonic, much like the time he had totally lost control before. Yukio jumped back to avoid another slash from the demon sword, before he pulled out both pistols to defend himself. Yukio couldn't believe his eyes when the demon figure before him suddenly reverted to the look of Rin as a child, his face with a bandage on his cheek.

"What's the matter Yukio? Was I not a good big brother? Do you want to hurt me?" The child demon asked, with tears running down his cheeks. Yukio was shaking, he just couldn't bring himself to hurt Rin, even if he had lost control, he couldn't give up on him like that!

* * *

/Rin

Rin woke up in an entirely dark room, confused as to where he was, he felt around the room until he felt a cord dangling from the ceiling. Rin pulled the cord as the room filled with light, revealing him to be standing in a room surrounded entirely in mirrors.

"W-What the hell?" Rin said in shock as he noticed that his demon flames were out, even though Kurikara wasn't unsheathed. Although trying his hardest to turn them off as he has done multiple times in the past, he couldn't.

"Why can't I turn them off?! What the hell is happening to me?!" Rin was in a panic, he thought it had finally happened, he was going to be a full demon forever.

"Rin? Are you okay?"

"Shiemi? How did you get in here?"

"I don't know... It must be part of the test, I think..."

"S-Stay back, okay? I can't control my flames anymore..."

Suddenly, the flames began growing larger and larger, and to Rin's horror, he could FEEL the flames on his skin.

_I-Its burning me...! That isn't supposed to be happening... Ow! God, it hurts!_

"Rin! Are you okay?" Shiemi was scared, Rin wasn't supposed to be in pain from his flames and ran over to comfort him.

"Shiemi, please stop! I don't want you to get hurt! AAAGGGHHH!" The flames suddenly flared up, nearly covering the entire room in flames, and Rin could do nothing but scream in horror and pain as he watched Shiemi encased in blue fire, turn to ash before his very eyes.

* * *

/Shiemi

"I'm really glad to see you again, Grandma. A lot has happened since you've passed on, did you come here when you moved on?"

"Yes I did, darling. I've been here in this paradise since that day, and I've been keeping an eye on you this entire time!"

Shiemi was unable to notice that her "Grandmother" was doing whatever it could to keep her here, in this very garden. The growing decay had spread to nearly every corner of the Garden, but Shiemi was in a trance-like state and couldn't see any of it. However, a scream seemed to come from Shiemi's head.

"Agh! Is that Rin? Is he hurt?" A distressed Shiemi asked herself as she heard an echoing scream that she could have sworn belonged to Rin.

"What are you talking about sweetie? That boy Rin isn't here."

"You know about Rin, grandma?"

"Why of course, I've been watching you, remember?"

Something seemed off, and Shiemi was for the first time, afraid to be near her Grandmother. As the doubts began to grow, she suddenly saw through the disguise. Standing in the exact same place as her grandmother, was a corpse covered in flowers, sporting the faces of crying people, other people who had been lured into this false Garden of Amahara. Quick on her feet, Shiemi summoned her familiar, before the creature could see that the girl had seen through it's disguise.

"Nii-chan! _Thorn Castle_!" Shiemi yelled to her familiar, picturing a castle of thorns surrounding the demon in her mind's eye, and watching as her familiar made it happen.

"**No! How could you see through me? You weak girl!**"

"It was the way you talked about Rin... You didn't seem like you really knew him at all, but like you wanted me to focus only on you and the Garden. My Grandma was a caring person, she would have done whatever she could to go help Rin, not make me ignore it!"

The flowery demon screamed in fury as it suddenly faded away, it's trap having failed. Shiemi watched the Garden of Amahara regain it's former beauty before she could feel herself wake up.

Shiemi was now inside Yukio's classroom again, surrounded by her closest friends who were all still unconscious on the ground. Her first instinct was to run to Rin, something about her dream had her believe he really was in trouble. Reaching out to touch his forehead, Shiemi felt her consciousness drift, and enter Rin's personal nightmare.

* * *

/Rin

Rin was sobbing hysterically in the center of the room after killing the girl that he swore he'd do anything to protect.

"W-What have I done?! Sh-Shiemi, I'm so sorry!" Tears streaming down his face, the dark-haired boy struggled to speak.

"Rin, you have to listen to me."

"S-S-Shiemi!? B-But I watched you die right in front of me!" Shiemi walked over to Rin, wiping the tears out of his face.

"I promise that I'm okay. This is all some sort of trick, and I'm guessing it is all Mephisto's doing. Rin, we're here to face our greatest fears, I conquered mine, and now I'm here to help you."

"Gr-Greatest fears? What was yours?"

"Finally finding the Garden of Amahara, and my Grandmother, and having to watch the Garden die before my very eyes."

"A-Are you alright?" Rin was finally regaining his senses, the tears had stopped now that he was convinced Shiemi was still safe and alive.

"I'm fine, but now it's time to get you through this!"

"I can't turn the flames off anymore... I'm a monster!"

"You're not a monster, Rin! I believe in you! We all believe in you! That faith is there for a reason, because if anyone can handle this, it's you Rin!"

Shiemi ran to Rin, and ran past a wall of blue flame and was entirely unscathed, she realized now that it was all an illusion. A cheap trick in order to send Rin into a depression, leaving him unable to do the things he had to do as an Exorcist. Hugging the boy tight, Shiemi watched as the flames died and Rin was back to his normal self.

"Th-Thank you..."

"Let's go back to the others, they're going to need you to help them through all of this." Shiemi smiled and was happy to see Rin able to return it. The couple awoke in Yukio's classroom, Rin made his way over to Yukio, who was jolting around in his sleep.

"Is he okay?! What do we do?"

"Do what I did. Just focus on Yukio and you should be able to enter his nightmare and help him, like I did with you."

"O-Okay! Wish me luck!"

Shiemi smiled and waved as Rin fell into another deep sleep before turning to the rest of her friends and wishing them all safe in their own journeys.

* * *

/Aki

All Aki could do was run as he found himself being chased in the halls of his dorm room by a disturbing creature. The monster had the limbs of a spider, the legs were made of sharp scythe-like blades, and the demon's face was covered in a mask.

"**Stop running, boy! I only want that little power of yours...**"

Aki couldn't think straight, he had never been this afraid in his short time as an exorcist, he was always confident when he had his friends with him. However, in this world, Aki was all alone, nobody else to be found.

_I can't let this thing win... If it kills me, it will steal my power and can use that to kill everyone else. I can't let that happen! _

Aki gasped in horror as he found himself at a dead end, he could have sworn this hallway continued, but in front of him lie a brick wall.

"**Shall we play a game, boy? I call it "How many times can I stab you in the chest before you give me what I want?" Doesn't that sound fun?**"

"F-Fine... You want to play? Let's play." Aki summoned his demon, a demonic raven called a Gale. Recently, Aki had learned a trick from Shura and right now, that was his only trump card in the situation. Aki rushed at the demon, unleashing a kick into it's face before firing a few rounds into it's bladed legs. A sharp pain suddenly appeared in Aki's chest as a bladed scythe cut threw the boy like butter.

* * *

/Yukio

The false demon Rin was now slicing threw the pews on the monastery, on the hunt for Yukio's hiding spot. Yukio couldn't bring himself to hurt Rin, if he could only get Rin to snap out of it!

"Come out, come out wherever you are..." The psychotic Rin called out, before driving Kurikara threw the pew Yukio was hiding under, but it wouldn't actually hurt Yukio, not yet. After all, the fun had only just begun!

"Agh! Nii-san, please stop this!"

"Ah-hah! So the begging for mercy game has already begun?"

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY LITTLE BROTHER, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" The very real Rin yelled as he drove Kurikara into the false Rin's chest, causing the fake to scream in agony, revealing it's true form, a gigantic doll, with large pins coming out of itself.

"**You?! But, you're supposed to be trapped in your own nightmare!**"

"Well, I'm not one to follow the rules! Are you okay, Yukio? This thing didn't hurt you, did it?"

Yukio was almost too stunned to speak, but he nodded that he was unharmed before running over to Rin to help him fight the demon, pointing pistols at the demon's head, the uncertainty was no longer there, Yukio no longer cared what happened to this creature. Firing three rounds into the demon, signaled Rin that now was the time to strike. Rin made a large slash at the air, sending a shockwave of blue flame into the demon's torso, causing the large tear to form in the doll's body, scorched foam and blood flowed from the wound before the demon sent pins flying at the Okumura brothers. A pin found it's way into Yukio's leg.

"Yukio!"

"I'm okay, it's only a minor wound."

Rin ran at the demon, dodging and reflecting any of the pins it sent his way with his sword before finally making a horizontal slash at the demon's neck, causing the doll's head to fly off and roll onto the floor. The demon then faded away, as did the wound it inflicted on Yukio.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes... but how did you...?"

"This is all apart of that test... We're supposed to defeat our greatest fears. Shiemi and I have already beat ours, so I came to help you."

"I... I couldn't hurt it... It looked like you, and I thought that..."

"That I had totally lost control?"

"Y-Yes..."

"Yukio, if that ever happens, then I want you to know that it's okay."

"What's okay?"

"To kill me. If anything like that ever happens, then it wouldn't be me anymore, and if you being too afraid to hurt me caused innocent people to get hurt... then..."

"Nii-san... That is never going to happen."

"If it does, I want you to promise, okay? Just in case!"

"I... I promise..."

Just like before, Rin and Yukio found themselves waking up.

"You guys made it! Are you alright, Yukio?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Thanks to Nii-san."

"I guess nobody else has woken up?" Rin asked, before noticing that Aki appeared to be in pain in his dream.

"W-What do we do?! Is he hurt?!"

Shiemi placed her hand on Aki's forehead, but was unable to enter his dream.

"I-I can't go in to help!"

"What?!"

* * *

/Aki

Lying on the ground, bleeding from a gaping wound in his chest, Aki heard the demon laughing at his pain and misery. Tears were in his eyes as his thought it was finally the end.

"**See how much harder you've made everything? You could have lived had you just given me the power willingly. Your friends are really worth your very life?**"

Aki suddenly began laughing, as a large smile spread on his face, he suddenly vanished in a gust of wind.

"**What?! Where did you go, you pest?!**"

The real Aki dropped down from the ceiling, bringing his foot into the demon's skull, knocking the demon onto the ground. Firing several rounds into the demon's legs, causing the blades to shatter and the limbs to disappear, Aki waved his hand at the demon, his familiar creating a gust of wind and launching the demon into the brick wall at the gesture. Aki had learned how to create a fake from Shura, who took a slight interest in him after seeing his performance at the Combat Camp.

"Game over! Now who the hell are you?!" Aki removed the creatures mask and saw something he was not prepared for.

_The demon had his face._

"W-What?! You're me?!"

"Not exactly... I'm your fear. The thing that had been holding you back."

"Why are you trying to kill me then? Take my power... Use it to kill my friends?!"

"I wasn't. I wanted you to FIGHT for that power, to recognize that you had it for a reason!"

"H-Huh?"

"Deep down inside you know you keep telling yourself that you're nothing special. That the gift finding you was a mistake! But that gift is very powerful, and was given to you to protect those important to you!"

"To... To protect my friends?"

"Yes, but you can't do that if you keep doubting yourself, now can you?!"

"Y-You're right... I'm sorry... I just never..." Aki was shocked, he never recognized the feelings he had deep inside, and now he was being told that those very feeling could get him and his friends killed?

"Look, thank you, for everything. Now, if you excuse me... I have friends to save!"

The other Aki smiled, knowing his mission was over. Waving goodbye to his other self, Aki watched as the clone faded away, and felt the tug of reality as he was pulled out of the dorm, and back into Yukio's classroom. He was greeted by Shiemi and the twins, who were all very relived to see him alive.

"You're okay! We thought you were hurt or something!" Rin was a nervous wreck, afraid his friend was going to die and there was nothing he could do about it.

"I'm okay, I promise! I just had to have a little talk with myself, that's all."

"Huh?" Rin, Yukio, and Shiemi all said in unison.

"My fear was within myself... This masked demon turned out to be me... and it was trying to make me realize something."

"That must be why we couldn't help. His fear wasn't about any of us, it was something he had to learn by himself." Yukio began putting the puzzle pieces together, before the four looked around at their classmates and looked for the next person that needed help. Aki walked over to Izumo, who suddenly began shaking her head no, as if she was having an argument with someone. A worried Aki suddenly devised a plan.

"I'll take care of Izumo... Rin, you get Bon?"

"S-Sure! We'll probably need him to save Konekomaru and Shima anyway..."

The half-demon and the psychic both fell back into a deep sleep as they rushed off to save their friends.

"Good plan guys! But next time, maybe ask if we're okay with it too?!" An annoyed Yukio yelled at an unconscious Rin and Aki, who undoubtedly could not hear him. Shiemi started to giggle at Yukio's outburst before agreeing with him.

"Those two do like to rush off, don't they?"

* * *

/Izumo

Izumo found herself back in the girl's bath in Yukio and Rin's dorm, a place that she constantly returned to in her dreams after a demon attacked her and Paku. Standing before her were her two familiars, Mike and Uke, slowly approaching her with an evil look in their eyes.

"What are you doing? I'm your master!"

"**Not anymore! You don't have us, you have nothing!**"

"N-No! Please, don't leave me alone!"

As the two wolf demons lunged at Izumo for the second time, two gunshots fired from seemingly nowhere, sending each familiar sprawling onto the ground.

"Izumo! Are you hurt?!"

Aki ran towards Izumo as she laid her head on his shoulder and cried.

"Th-They attacked me again! This happened once before... but I thought I was in control again. If I don't have them... then I have nothing!"

"That's not true!"

"H-Huh?" the sobbing Izumo asked in confusion.

"You have me! A-And the rest of our friends, too! You're not alone as long as we're around."

Aki smiled and for the first time in awhile, Izumo found herself smiling back.

"T-Thank you... I guess I'm not as alone as I though I was."

The world faded out to black as Aki and Izumo woke up once again in Yukio's room.

"Five down, three more to go!" An excited Rin bellowed, anxious to finish Mephisto's 'test' once and for all.

"What's wrong with them?" Izumo asked, staring at the unconscious bodies of Ryuji, Shima, and Konekomaru.

"They're all asleep, trapped in nightmares just like we all were." Yukio answered the question as he waved goodbye to Rin, who was going to fetch Ryuji.

* * *

/Ryuji

Ryuji found himself reliving a memory when he finally came to, with Satan standing before him. This time, instead of inhabiting Yukio, he saw Satan in what Ryuji imagined was his true form, a tall man resembling Rin covered in his Blue Flames. Suddenly, Rin himself walked out from behind Satan.

"Don't worry, Dad, I'll take care of this punk."

"O-Okumura! I thought you wanted to defeat Satan?!"

"D-Did I? Weird."

Rin ran towards Ryuji, Kurikara lifted high above his head.

_I... I trusted you. I thought we were friends, after all that had happened..._

_"_Don't just stand there! Idiot!" The real Rin parried the fake's sword.

"How many fake me's am I going to have to fight today? Huh?!" Driving Kurikara deep into the clone's side, it vanished in a puff of Blue Flame, before Rin turned to Ryuji and offered his hand.

"O-Okumura? What the hell just happened!?"

"That was a fake. It was trying to trick you so it could kill you. It's all apart of the test, our fears are coming to haunt us."

"M-My fear was you turning against me...?"

"I think it was more than that. I think it was seeing somebody with the same goal as you give up."

"Then we'll just have to kill Satan together, won't we?"

"I like that idea a lot actually!" Rin grinned as he rushed towards Satan, dodging a fireball on the way. Ryuji began reciting an Aria that came from seemingly nowhere, causing the devil before them to weaken, his flames dying. Rin made a vertical slash and watched as the monster vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Is it all over?"

"Well, this is. I hope you realize the real deal will be much harder than that."

"Of course! I'm not stupid!" Ryuji had regained his usual attitude as knocked Rin upside the head.

"W-What was that for?! Anyway, it's time to go back."

"Go... back?"

"Just close your eyes, focus, and wake up."

"Sounds... simple enough."

* * *

"Welcome back!' Shiemi greeted the two boys cheerfully, as Ryuji struggled to adjust to the rapidly changing surroundings.

"Okay, what kind of test is this?!"

"No idea... But it looks like we've all passed so far. You mind saving your friends?" Aki responded, with a contemplative look as he wondered for what must have been the one hundredth time that night why Mephisto would have put them all in such dangerous nightmares. As Shiemi lead Ryuji over to Konekomaru and explained the entire process, something happened differently this time. Everyone in the room could feel themselves being tugged into sleep, and all of them re-awoke inside of Konekomaru's dream.

* * *

/Konekomaru

The gang suddenly found themselves in new bodies, ones that were exactly like their own but had sustained major damage, everyone collapsed on the floor as a crying Konekomaru ran over to check on them.

"Are you all okay?! I don't know what to do... I can't fight like you all can..."

"O-Of course you can! You've trained just like we all have, you've helped us all through danger tons of times Konekomaru!"

The sobbing boy calmed down hearing the words of encouragement from all of his friends helped him focus. Standing before Konekomaru was Satan, and he was the last one standing.

"I don't care what happens to me! But I won't let you hurt them!"

With those words, Satan vanished before Konekomaru's eyes. Trying to understand what had just happened, he turned to his injured friends.

"I think I get it... Your fear was that you wouldn't be strong enough to stand up for your friends. But, guess what? You just did." Aki smiled as he reassured Konekomaru that he was braver than he let himself believe.

"We've got one more friend to save." Izumo spoke up, reminding them all of what they had to do now. The group all closed their eyes and looked up into the sky.

"Shima." The group said in unison and found the room spinning around them, and Shima appearing before them all with a new landscape around them. Shima was standing in the middle of the forest, with a cockroach following him around. Rin stepped on the cockroach and the forest around them vanished, sending the exorcists back into Yukio's classroom for the last time. This time, however, Mephisto was standing in the room too.

* * *

"Congratulations to all of you!"

"Wh-What the hell?! That was it? Shima's nightmare was just a cockroach?!" Rin was fuming over how simple the solution to Shima's world was, and everyone found themselves laughing at the situation.

"H-Hey, cut me some slack! Sorry I don't have any underlying issues!" An embarrassed Shima pleaded his case before everyone finally acknowledged the demon who had done this to them in the first place.

"What the hell was that entire test about anyway? We could have been killed!" Aki wanted to get to the bottom of this, and was beginning to wonder whether Mephisto was a threat to them or not.

"It was to strengthen all of you. Those issues were only holding you back, and now you can move on."

"Next time, give me at least an advanced warning. I won't forget that you could have had my students killed, just remember that." A furious Yukio walked out of the room before the rest of the group followed him.

"H-Hey, guys... Let's just try and relax. It seems like the rain has stopped, how about we all go out for dinner? I know a nice place down the road!" Shima was trying to calm his confused friends, at the mention of food Rin's ears perked up.

"Sounds good to me!"

A vision came over Aki of him and his friends out at dinner, laughing and smiling. He was ready to put all of what had happened tonight behind him, it was time for everyone to go enjoy themselves.

"Anything bad?" Shiemi asked, praying they didn't have anything to worry about anymore.

"Quite the opposite actually. Let's go to dinner, I got paid this week anyway." The blond smiled and for the first time since he had saved Izumo, acted like his usual cheerful self again.

END OF CHAPTER 5

_I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter! I wanted to have a chapter where the gang really got to know each other better, and I feel like the group understands one another much more now. Any comments and reviews are much appreciated, thanks for reading!_


	6. I know how you feel

Yukio Okumura had woken up early as usual to prepare for his busy day of missions and teaching, but was shocked to walk into the Dorm Cafeteria and see his friend and student: Aki Oshiro, sleeping with his head down on one of the tables. He walked over and shook the boy, after all he had to get ready for school in about an hour or so.

"Aki? Are you alright? Why are you sleeping in here?"

"H-Huh? Yukio?"

The boys eyes were a glowing white, like they usually were when his power of premonition was activated.

"Are you seeing something? Your eyes have changed again."

"W-What? Oh, no... That's my new power."

"New power?!"

"Yeah... I seem to have developed Empathy overnight. It turns itself on all the time and woke me up."

"How so?"

"Well... I randomly felt Ukobach's love of cooking at about 12 AM, and ended up coming down here in a trance to make something to eat. Ukobach got pissed and hit me with a frying pan, and suddenly I felt extremely tired which I guessed was because of Rin. Looks like I passed out here..."

Yukio had to try really hard not to laugh at the red mark on Aki's cheek where the pan had connected, but restrained himself enough to instead tell Aki to get ready for school.

"You sure that's a good idea? I could go insane from all the emotions around me..."

"Well, you've got to learn to control it one way or another."

"G-Great. I'll go get ready, then..."

Aki sighed before walking away, slumped over and exhausted, suddenly, his eyes reverted to normal and he no longer felt tired. He kept on down the hall with a new found excitement for the day, as he quickly got dressed in his dorm and headed towards school, waking Rin up on the way.

The day ended with nearly four mental breakdowns, it was driving Aki mad not to let the emotions out and he never had any idea where they came from. At one point in the day, the new empath could have sworn he cut himself and noticed another student clench his hand in pain, and that was when his new power began to scare him.

"This must be how Rin feels... having to learn control or risk hurting someone..." Aki whispered to himself as he walked to his dorm in order to head to the Cram School, he didn't want to risk any more time in that crowded school if he didn't have to.

"Oi, Aki! Yukio says you got a new power? That's awesome!" Rin yelled in excitement, excitement that was spreading like wildfire to Aki. Slightly depressed a few moments ago, now Aki was excited for the events ahead as he and Rin stepped through the door into the Cram School, at this hour, Shura should be teaching since Yukio was on a small vacation.

"Aki... Your eyes aren't going back to normal."

"I know. I can't seem to shut my Empathy off... it just stays on and randomly links me to people. Right now, I'm feeling whatever you feel. Including worry, so please calm down..."

"G-Gah! I'm sorry!" Rin forced a smile and made himself think happy thoughts, Aki couldn't help but laugh and for the first time in an hour, his own emotions took priority over others'.

"Y-Your eyes went back. So... laughing got your control back?"

"I guess... I'd better learn fast before I have to deal with pain!"

"You two bozos finally decide to show up?" Shura asked the two boys, who were both surprised to see that the rest of the class was already all prepared. Rin guessed they were all too afraid of Shura to dare to be late. Aki could feel Shura's annoyance and his eyes signified that the power had taken control again.

"Yeah, dumbass. You shouldn't have slowed me down so much."

Aki blushed with embarrassment when he realized what he had just said, and quickly lost the power again when his own feelings grew stronger than Shura's.

"S-Sorry! That was the power talking, not me..."

"I get it... It's fine."

"P-Power?" Suguro spoke up, wondering how Aki's visions had done this.

"Yep. I got a new one last night. I can feel what other people feel, now. Except it turns off and on by itself."

"So... you're a guidance counselor now instead of an all-powerful Exorcist?" Shima joked

"Sh-Shut up Shima." Aki stuck his tongue out to show he was only kidding.

"Well, as interesting as that is... I've got a lesson to- Oh, thank god! A mission! Look, do whatever you guys want, okay?"

With that, the flame haired woman ran out of the room, anxious to escape her teaching duties, leaving the students stunned. Finally, the group decided to spend the rest of Shura's instruction period at the beach.

After having changed into their bathing suits, the group of exorcists were excited to finally relax at the beach. Aki quickly jumped into the water, anxious to forget about his new power for a little bit. Konekomaru began splashing water at Ryuji, which began an all-out water war among the group, causing an irritated Izumo to storm off and settle for reading a magazine in a beach chair. Suddenly, the familiar feeling of a vision came over Aki and he found himself seeing the past, for the first time. Standing before him was Rin and Shiro, except Shiro had the form of a disturbing demon.

"Aki! You alright?!"

"I-I don't know... I see you and Shiro... he's possessed isn't he? Why am I so afraid?"

"He... He was possessed by Satan that night."

"R-Rin... I can feel everything. I think I'm feeling what you're feeling!"

"You can do that in your visions now?"

"I... I feel like I'm being sucked in... That weird portal...!"

"It's okay, none of it is real!"

"I can feel it! Th-The sword, you're reaching for the sword..."

As the past Rin unsheathed the sword for the first time, his demon powers were unleashed. To Aki's surprise and everyone else's, when the power was awakened, Aki glowed blue with the flames of Satan as well.

"Wh- What the hell?! Is he a demon too!?" A shocked Shima asked before Aki cut him off with his hand.

"No, I'm channeling Rin's power and anger from the past, it's apart of my Empathy. How do I turn it off, Rin? I feel angry..."

Aki clenched his fists as the flames grew brighter, and fell to the ground in tears as he saw Shiro dead before Rin, a combination of his own sadness and Rin's, the flames dying at the change in emotion.

It had been about fifteen minutes since the young Empath had his breakdown on the beach, the vision had passed and he finally regained control of himself again. He was scared about letting any emotion through in case he activated something else, but didn't want that to ruin his short time to enjoy the beach with his friends.

"You okay now? How about we play some volleyball to help you relax?" Ryuji asked, clearly worried that there was now another friend with an uncontrollable power.

"Yeah, I'm okay. That sounds fun!"

The game was starting, on one side, Rin, Aki, and Shiemi. On the other, the trio from Kyoto. Izumo didn't want to bother playing volleyball, and Takara had managed to ditch everyone shortly after arriving at the beach. It was Shima's turn to serve the ball, and knocking it high up into the air, Aki got himself a running start and leaped into a cartwheel kick, spiking the ball down hard onto the opposite end of the net. Konekomaru had to dive to keep the ball into the air, but ultimately nobody was able to get it back over. Aki cheered before looking over to Rin and asking:

"Do you think I overdid it?" a question that made Shiemi giggle and ask for the ball to serve.

The game continued for a long while, before Izumo thought it best to mention that it was almost time for their next period to start and they should hurry before Yukio yelled at them. The game ended surprisingly in a draw, with both teams scoring six points. Getting back onto the bus, the group heading back towards True Cross and went together back into class.

Yukio didn't have very much to say, trying his hardest to suppress his anger towards Shura for leaving his students with nothing to do. Going quickly over some plant demon trivia, something that Shiemi was constantly providing correct answers to, the class was finally dismissed for the day and the kids began packing their bags to head home. Throughout the lesson, Aki felt anxiousness, annoyance, excitement from answering questions correctly, and finally, a deep bitterness that Aki guessed had to come from Takara. As the bitter wave came through Aki, he slammed his hand down on his desk to snap attention back to the world around him, but by doing so, the class was shocked to see a red shock-wave pass through the desk and cause one of the legs to snap.

"O-Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry, I didn't know I could do that!" Quickly standing up to clean up the shattered pieces until Yukio told him it was okay and convinced him to head home for some rest.

"Jeez! Am I just going to keep breaking things forever, now?"

"Hey, don't get too down. I had trouble with my flames before, the strength my demon side gave me had me breaking tons of stuff. You'll get used to it, I promise!"

Rin's cheerful outlook on the situation calmed Aki down, and spread to him as well, but not through any supernatural means. As the two boys walked back to their dorms, Aki realized he had lost his key. The foolish act made him rather angry, and reaching for the doorknob again caused a familiar shock-wave to pass through it, snapping the lock out and causing the door to open forcefully.

"I could get used to that."

And with that, Aki prepared for bed, anxious to practice his new powers tomorrow.

_End of Chapter 6  
[Sorry if the chapter was short, but I just wanted a fun little chapter to introduce Aki's new ability. Empathy will be a major power and focus for Aki from now on, since it is his main power. Hope you enjoyed, expect an exciting chapter sometime next week that features much more of this new power!]_


	7. Revenge

Aki was tossing and turning in his sleep. A violent nightmare had suddenly began in the middle of a pleasant memory, and he had no idea where it could have came from. He woke up, nearly screaming as he watched two people he could have sworn were strangers be murdered by a clawed demon before his very eyes. In the back of their car lay a screaming child with light blond hair and green and blue eyes.

"Oh my god... It's me!"

The vision ended and Aki collapsed, from fright, exhaustion, and a deep sadness for the two people he now knew were his parents, parents he could barely remember anymore. He knew nearly all his life that his parents had been killed by a demon, but seeing it was very different from hearing it. He thought back to all of the nights he lay awake wishing he could hug his parents one last time, wondering why Grandfather was so distant. It all made sense to him now, and he couldn't keep dwelling on it. That demon would die if it was the last thing Aki ever did.

_Is this why you always were so protective of me? Why you never let me out of your sight, Grandpa?_  
-

"Are you sure it wasn't all just a dream?"

Rin was skeptical at first as he heard what Aki had to tell him, but the psychic was persistent.

"I'm positive! There was something about it that felt so familiar, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it."

Aki began searching through Yukio's books in the dorm he shared with Rin, looking for any information he could find on the demon who had murdered his parents.

"What are you doing? We shouldn't mess with Yukio's stuff!"

"I need to see if there's any details on the demon. I have to get revenge, Rin... For them!"

Rin could see how serious Aki was, and for the first time noticed the redness around his eyes, as if he had been crying recently. Rin nodded with acceptance as he agreed to help Aki find and kill the demon, and the two hunted through every book they could get their hands on. Eventually, Aki found a description of a demon that matched the one from his nightmare and copied it down on a sheet of paper, just as the two boys heard footsteps from outside. They quickly shut and placed the books back on the shelf and tried not to look suspicious.

"I'm home!"

Yukio called out as he came in the door, he had a briefcase with him and was placing his stuff down. He waved to Aki and Rin and noticed that something seemed odd, but quickly dismissed the thought. Aki made his way to the door as he gave an excuse for needing to leave, clutching the paper in his hand. He had made a crude drawing of the creature on the paper as well, and Yukio noticed it as Aki passed by him.

"Nii-san... Why does he have that sheet of paper?"

"Uh... You saw?"

"Yes."

"Aki thinks it's the demon who killed his parents... He wants revenge."

"That demon is extremely dangerous!"

"Well, try telling him that!"

The brothers ran out the door quickly, in order to chase their friend down and convince him not to go looking for trouble, but it was too late, trouble had already found them.

Poised on a lamp post outside the dorm, the clawed demon lay in wait for a chance to strike, the blond boy who had escaped him years ago was now below him, and his hunger for the boy's blood was growing stronger by the second. Suddenly, a yell rang from the open door to the dorm, and the demon noticed in anger as two more boys walked out. Normally, he would have just killed all three, but one of those boys was the inheritor of Satan's flames, he wasn't going to risk such a deadly encounter. No, he would wait for the blond to be alone, and slit his throat at last.

"Don't try to talk me out of it."

Just then, a trash can next to the three boys exploded, flying into the sky before falling back to the ground with a loud thud.

"S-Sorry... I can't control that yet..."

"Then what makes you think you can fight this demon?"

"Because... Blowing the demon up is a good thing."

"He's got a point there..." Rin chimed in.

"Not now... Nii-san..."

Suddenly, Aki noticed the demon hiding up on the lamp post, he pointed at it and sent a small shock-wave towards it, but missed as the creature leaped up high onto the dorm's roof and escaped.

"Damn it!"

Aki was now glowing a brilliant blue with the power he was borrowing from Rin. His anger seemed to have triggered it, and as he advanced toward the dorm to chase the demon, Yukio placed a hand on his shoulder, the flames weren't burning him, so that at least showed some control.

"Look, we'll help you. Okay? Just don't go rushing off by yourself, it's dangerous!" Yukio reassured Aki before reloading his guns and preparing for a battle.

"Alright, I'm sorry... I just... Want to avenge them, you know?" The flames died down as Aki calmed down, and Rin was glad to see he could turn them off. The three headed up onto the roof and looked for the demon, but could see it nowhere. Eventually, they agreed to search for it in the city after class. Aki was reluctant, but gave up his revenge scheme for the time being.

* * *

"Is he okay?" Shiemi had noticed the odd mood in the air and decided to ask Rin about why Aki was so distant.

"Well, he had a vision of the demon that killed his parents..."

"Oh... Poor Aki... Is there anything we can do to help?"

"We're going to hunt for it later... It tried to attack outside our dorm earlier."

"Okay, well let me know if you need me, okay?"

"Y-Yeah, of course!"

Sending their attention back to Yukio, the class was informed of a quiz they had tomorrow, but before they could express their distress over that, everyone noticed Aki close his eyes as if he had fallen asleep, and stared in awe as he began glowing a light red.

"You alright, man?" asked Shima as the rest of the class stood up in alarm.

"Yeah. I'm trying to scan for that demon."

"You can do that?"

"Um... I'm not sure... I don't have very much control over empathy yet, but I can control feeling other people's emotions pretty well, so I thought if I focused on demon's, I could feel where it was."

"Is it working?" Rin was sort of anxious to fight this thing now, and was even more excited to see that Aki might be developing a demon radar, which could seriously come in handy!

"G-Got it! I sense anger... I'm getting weird flashes of some place, they aren't in color and they're hard to make out. Perhaps... a park?"

"Alright, listen up. If we're going to do this, then we will all go as a team. Do I make myself clear?" Yukio spoke up, deciding to turn this into a learning experience for the class as well as make sure Aki didn't run off and get himself hurt or killed. The class of exorcists ran out of the room, grabbing their weapons and whatever they felt they needed to fight this demon off. Running around, looking for any landmarks that Aki could recognize from the vision, they found nothing but trees and silence. Suddenly, the gang heard an ear piercing scream and clutched their ears to silence the painful screech. A large menacing figure leaped out of the trees. The figure had one massive claw and looked moderately human, with only half of a face.

"STOP IT!" Aki yelled out in pain and sent a force of energy at the demon, borrowing the pain of his friends as he did so. The blast knocked the creature off his feet and several yards back, before everyone regained focus as the pain was now gone.

"Nice work!" Rin slapped Aki on the back in a congratulatory way before he unsheathed his sword and ran towards the demon, the rest of the gang close behind. Yukio fired several rounds into the demon before it stood back up and rushed towards Shima, who repelled the attack with his Kr'ik. This wasn't going as anyone had planned, they needed some sort of strategy, and Aki suddenly knew just what to try.

"Konekomaru! I have an idea, but if this doesn't work, I need you to come up with a backup. I'm counting on you!"

"O-Okay! I'll stay back and plan something out, good luck..."

Rushing off to the front lines next to Rin, Aki whispered something to Rin so only he could hear.

"I'm the distraction again? I'm getting used to it..."

"Yeah... Thanks. I'm not sure that this is going to work, either..."

"Well, you'll never know if you don't try!" Rin yelled behind him as he rushed to stab Kurikara into the demon's side, which grabbed it's attention as it raised it's claw to make a counter-attack. Aki closed his eyes and focused while the fight was going on. A red aura came over his body as he focused on the pain he felt seeing his parents die, the years of feeling alone when he tried to remember them. Keeping those feelings in mind, he ran over to the demon. The demon sensed his presence behind him and promptly shoved a sharp claw into Aki's stomach, causing a massive gash.

"**Feed me your pain!**"

"Y-You want p-pain...? How about twelve years worth, you son of a bitch!"

Aki placed a glowing hand on the demons forehead and sent all of the pain he felt into the demon, causing it to scream in agony and explode. Causing the souls of it's victims to release into the air and shower down.

"Th-They're finally free. To be at peace..."

Aki collapsed from the wound, but managed to keep himself alive by healing the pain he felt. Yukio treated him with Shiemi's help as soon as was possible, and the group made their way home. Aki was being supported by Rin and Yukio since he couldn't walk very well at the moment, but he couldn't help but stare at the beautiful glowing souls that were now freed, and could have sworn he saw an image of his parents in the sky smiling.

_'I miss you guys.'_

and he could have sworn he saw them reply: "We're proud of you."

* * *

It was now the day after they had vanquished the demon, a demon they now knew was known as "The Pain Eater". Rin was surprised to see Aki out of the infirmary, and peeking into Rin's dorm room.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh! Hey, Rin... I'm messing with Yukio..."

"Really? How?"

"Well, I've been learning how to focus on things and make them move... So I'm moving his pen away when he isn't looking."

"Let me see!" Rin replied, giggling as he moved into the doorway to watch.

Yukio was sitting at his desk as he put his pen down to take a drink of his mineral water, when Aki suddenly caused the pen to roll over onto the ground.

"A-Again? What is up with this pen?!"

Aki and Rin laughed at this... but a little too loudly.

"I can hear you, you know."

"N-No you can't!" came the reply of a scared Rin.

"Sh-Shut up, you idiot!"

"You should know by now that my brother isn't very good at being quiet..."

Yukio pushed his glasses up onto his face as he went back to his paperwork, he reloaded one of his guns for emphasis and the two pranksters ran away as they heard a click.

_End of Chapter 7_  
( May be adding more content soon though, so keep an eye out!)


	8. Who Are You Again?

Rin had finally gotten out of bed, after sleeping in longer than even he was used to. As he stumbled slightly towards his dresser to get ready for school, he set out down the hallway to knock on Aki's door. After a few moments, the blond answered the door, a little surprised to see Rin since class was starting soon, and Yukio warned him about being late again.

"Excuse me... Can you help me? I can't remember anything."

"Wh-What? Seriously?"

"Yes... Something told me you could help me... " Rin looked really nervous, and Aki was now sure that he wasn't faking.

"Okay, well first tell me what you DO remember."

"I remember that I go to school here, at True Cross... I remember my name, and my brother..."

"You don't remember me, do you?"

"Sorry, no..."

"Ah, well... That's okay. We'll fix this, I promise!" Aki did his best to give Rin some hope, and the confused boy believed it. Truthfully, however, Aki had no idea what to do. He had never heard of someone their age randomly losing their memories.

'Yukio... Yukio can figure this out, I just know it!'

* * *

Walking down the hallway towards their usual class, Aki did his best to fill Rin in on all of the blanks in his memory.

"I forgot my best friend? What kind of person am I?!"

"Hey, don't feel too bad... You forgot a lot worse... I'll fill you in later, though."

'How in the hell am I going to explain the whole "demon" thing?! He hasn't put two and two together, for some reason...'

"Why am I wearing this weird costume? I woke up and I was wearing it." Rin said as he lifted up his tail.

"O-Okay... Guess I'm explaining this sooner rather than later... Y-You're a demon..."

"What?!"

"Not kidding. You're a good demon though, you've been using your powers to be an Exorcist, like your dad was."

Rin suddenly had an odd flash, the mention of his dad seemed to restore a chunk of memory. A flashback of his adoptive father's death crept into his head.

"I... I remember my dad now... I-I'm Satan's son, aren't I?"

"Uh... Y-Yeah..."

"Look, I can't pretend that I understand all of this now. But if all of this stuff worked out well for me before this weird memory thing, then I'll just have to trust you to bring me back to normal."

"Okay, great! I think your brother can probably trigger a good deal back... Let's just go see him, alright?"

* * *

"Oi! Yukio!"

"Ah, so nice of you two to actually show up!"

"Sorry... But we've got a problem, here... Rin has amnesia."

"Amnesia? Are you serious?"

"Yep. He can't remember a thing. Just his name, you, me, and Shiro. Even forgot he was a demon."

"This is not good."

Rin had finally had enough and decided to speak up.

"Okay, seriously? Thanks for all that, Debbie Downer!"

"Ah... Sorry, nii-san..."

Yukio was torn about what to do, and eventually decided to cut his lesson short and go research whatever had happened to Rin. While Yukio excused himself from the room, Aki tried to jog memories of their classmates for Rin.

"Okay, so over there is the Kyoto Trio. Konekomaru, Shima, and Suguro. Over there is Takara... We don't talk to him much, he's kind of rude to us. Shiemi is over there... You two are madly in love-"

"W-What?!"

"I'm just kiddin' around with you... Although you two are sort of together, it's complicated..."

"Uh... Okay..."

"...and over there is Izumo. She's got a good heart but is brutally honest, so you probably shouldn't bother talking to her in your current state..."

"She's kinda cute..."

"H-Huh?!"

"Ha ha ha! I'm just messing with you... Wanted to see if you liked her or not. Guess I got my answer!"

"What are you talking about? Th-That's crazy..." Aki tried his best to explain that he didn't have a crush on Izumo, but Rin wasn't budging. Finally, they dropped the conversation as Yukio came back into the room.

"O-Okay... I think... I think I have s-something." He was out of breath from rushing back to class, but with him he held a dark and dusty book. Aki glanced at the cover before he expressed his confusion.

"Book of spells? Why would that help us?"

"Be-Because I was doing research all around... The only thing I found was something in here about making somebody lose their memory. I thought that maybe... since Rin was a demon... he could have used the magic in this book by accident and wiped his own memory!"

"That's kind of far-fetched, don't you think?"

"Well of course... But at least it's a theory."

Rin was now eyeing the book up and down and turning the pages all over, he finally stopped on the memory spell Yukio was talking about and read it to himself.

"I can't say I recognize it, but we should still give it a shot."

"How do you reverse a spell, Yukio?" Aki was starting to consider the possibility that magic was the cause of their problems, but sighed as Yukio shook his head in confusion. Rin suddenly picked up the book and tried saying the spell aloud, but there was no effect.

"It's not working, let's just try something different." Yukio said with disappointment in his voice.

"Damn it!" Rin had bursted into flame as his anger rose, before he looked down in terror at the flames consuming his body.

"Wh-What the hell is happening to me?!"

"Ri-Rin! Calm down, it's okay. That's just a part of your demon powers."

"It is? How do I shut it off?"

"I think you just have to relax... Here, let me try something."

Aki closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Making himself as relaxed as he could, he raised a hand and held it in front of Rin's face. A faint glow came off of it, and he sent his calm feelings into Rin, causing the flames to die.

"Whoa, how did you do that?"

"I've got powers too. I can feel what other people are feeling as well as change their emotions. I just made you feel as calm as I am."

"A-Awesome!"

"Glad you think so... Any other ideas, Yukio?"

* * *

The three boys found themselves standing outside of Mephisto's office as they had exhausted all of their other options. Waving them inside, Mephisto sat at his desk with his feet propped up on the tabletop. There was an odd feeling in the air that suggested Mephisto already knew why they were here, but Yukio quickly dismissed the thought.

"What brings you here today?"

"W-Well, you see... Rin appears to have some form of amnesia... We were wondering if you knew how to correct it."

"Amnesia? Isn't that curious? Have you tried magic?"

"H-Huh? W-Well, we kind of did... It didn't even work." Aki responded, wondering why magic was being brought up for the second time today.

"Maybe you tried with the wrong person... Why don't you give it a shot, hm?"

Not knowing what to think, the psychic stepped forward to the book, as Mephisto turned to the appropriate page. Mephisto had an odd smirk on his face as he waited for Aki to read. This time, he pointed him to a different section that the boy could have sworn was not there before, a section titled "To return one's memory."

"_Ut memoriam vestram redire_" Aki read the spell aloud, strangely, he felt comfortable with the words. Mephisto was pleased to see that upon concentrating on the words before him, Aki's eyes had taken their usual white color, except this time, a Pentacle was located on his right eye, glowing faintly. Everyone was shocked to see a glowing blue light come out of the book and fly into Rin. As the light faded, Rin suddenly shouted:

"My memories are back! I didn't know you could cast spells, Aki!"

"N-Neither did I..." Aki threw down the book on the desk and backed away from it, his eyes reverting to their normal color and the strange power he felt swell inside of him faded. He was slightly uncomfortable with what he had just accomplished, and wanted to know how and why.

"Why did you want me of all people to read that... What is going on here?"

"I apologize for the little test... I wanted to see if you were what I thought you were."

"Test? So you did this to Rin?"

"Why, yes I did."

"For what?!" Yukio suddenly slammed both hands on the desk in anger, wondering what warranted a need for Mephisto to remove his brother's memories.

"I wanted to see if our little psychic here was _The Grimoire. _Good news! I believe he is!"

"I... I'm the what?!"

"There is a legend that Satan himself took a powerful book of magic and unleashed it's power out into the world years ago. The power and information located in that book was meant to find a host that would use it's power to destroy the world."

"Huh?! That can't be... I'm not evil! You must have the wrong guy!"

"I don't believe I do, actually... It appears that being chosen for _The Gift _might have balanced everything out... Gave you control back over your life..."

The three exorcists were shocked to hear all of this, and none of them could believe it. But something kept tugging at Aki as he heard the explanation, a feeling deep down that Mephisto was right. Consumed with fear and worry, Aki suddenly reverted to a comatose state and fell down onto the ground, his eyes open and glowing with the newly discovered pentacle boldly displayed on his right eye.

"Aki! What's happening to him?!"

"Nothing! He's just awakening to his true power. Now we'll be able to see which is truly in control. The power, or the boy! It's like a game, in a way!"

* * *

Aki found himself in an entirely white room with nothing in sight except for a pedestal in the center of the room. He slowly walked over to it, before he heard a voice.

"**Are you finally ready to awaken to your true form?**"

"A-Awaken? What are you talking about? I don't want to awaken to anything!"

"**You've got power sealed inside you that you wouldn't believe! Don't you want that power? That strength?**"

"N-Not if it means destroying the world! Hurting the ones I care about!"

"**How dare you reject me! I saved your miserable life years ago!**"

A flashback came over Aki as he saw the familiar scene of his parents' deaths. Sitting in the backseat was a young Aki, and he could see a shield form around the small boy, saving his life from the gruesome demon that had been killed just a few days ago. Paying closer attention, Aki could see the younger version of himself had glowing eyes with a pentacle on the right eye. He was beginning to understand where his powers came from, and was slightly afraid to see any more as he snapped back to reality.

"I... I see."

"**Time to awaken!**"

The book opened fully, flipping rapidly through pages as smoke the color of midnight poured out of the ancient text, entering Aki's body.

"S-Stop! I-I'm in control of this power, n-not you!"

Aki slammed the book closed and could feel new power within himself, he told himself that he would use this power to protect those dear to him. That realization brought the boy back to life, and he was now looking at a distressed Rin and Yukio anxiously awaiting him to wake up.

"Th-Thank god you're okay!" said Yukio as he helped Aki stand up.

"Y-You ARE okay, right?" asked Rin slowly.

"I'm fine! I promise!" Aki's hand shot up over his right eye, where the Pentacle signifying his magic power was awakened. His eyes reverted to their normal colors as Aki calmed down and stopped channeling any power.

"What happened in there? I can't pretend that I'm not curious."

The three boys sent evil glares at Mephisto, but Aki decided to let him in on what had just occurred anyway.

"I took control of the power, not vice versa."

"So... What, you have magic now?"

"Well, you wouldn't be the first exorcist who could use magic. It's a hard and rare skill..."

"I saw a lot while I was in there... This explains where my powers came from... It also explains how we even met in the first place, I guess."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, when me and Grandpa were looking for somewhere to live, I really wanted to live here. There was almost no rhyme or reason for it, but I just had to be here. I'm thinking the book sensed you two and wanted to re-connect with Satan."

"W-Why?"

"I don't know for sure... I just had all of these weird thoughts jumbled all up in my head. I think the book's plan was unraveling and I was hearing everything it didn't want me to know. Remember the day we became friends? That's the first day I ever had a vision. That's the day I got my free-will back."

"Is it weird?"

"Is what weird?"

"Finding out you weren't entirely in control of your life?"

"Well, of course it's strange... But I'm in control now. Let's go, okay? I've got to practice this magic stuff before I hurt people by accident!"

Waving to Mephisto, the three exorcists made their way out of the office. They were going to be very suspicious of their headmaster from now on, but for the time being he posed no threat. Mephisto made a mental note to keep an eye on Aki, but was glad to see he could control his powers and wouldn't need to be executed.

"You'll be an entertaining one to watch indeed... " Mephisto whispered to himself with a grin.

_-End of Chapter 8-  
-Notes-_

Ut memoriam vestram redire - This is Latin for "To return your memories."

Pentacle - This is the five-pointed star symbol seen often in TV or other when magic or witchcraft is involved. Not to be confused with the Inverted Pentagram which is a symbol for satan.


	9. Homework and Witchcraft

_[The following chapter is a fun little chapter that mainly involves multiple scenarios of Magic failures and shenanigans.]_

"So... How exactly do you make Magic work?" After seeing a bolt of lightning hit the carpet, a slightly worried Rin Okumura asked his best friend Aki Oshiro about Magic. The boys had recently discovered that Aki was the chosen host of a magical Grimoire that gave the boy powerful magic ability.

"It's kind of hard to explain... If I focus I can kind of feel this power inside, and then with the right words I can just make things happen."

"That's awesome!"

"Not always... Sometimes you say the words wrong, sometimes you don't know what spell to use. It's mainly trial and error."

"Well, what exactly HAVE you learned how to do since last week?"

"Very basic elemental stuff. I can shoot lightning bolts, icicles, and do some very minor stuff with Blue Flames, just like you."

"Whoa, hold up! You can do that without being a demon?"

"No, no, no. Don't get me wrong, your power is FAR out of my reach. I can use the power of Satan Flame, but it will never be on the same level as you. Which is why we bother to keep you around." Aki said jokingly and waited for the older boy to catch on to the insult, which seemed to take a long time.

"H-Hey!"

Making their way out of Aki's room, the two decided to head out into the town on their day off of school. There was talk of a new mall that had recently opened and the entire class of Exorcists (minus Takara and Yukio) were supposed to check it out.

"There you guys are! Everything okay?" Shiemi was starting to worry herself when Rin and Aki weren't showing up, and was glad to finally see them.

"H-Huh? Fine! Just had to clean lightning bolt out of the carpet."

"What? Is this a magic thing?"

"Yeah."

"Then I just won't bother asking..."

The group quickly made their way outside and began walking towards the newly completed building that was already surrounded with hundreds of anxious customers and teenagers excited to see the brand new departments. Upon seeing the multiple long lines, the group let out sighs of discouragement. However, Izumo noticed that Aki had a mischievous look on his face and decided to ask what was on his mind.

"You have an idea?"

"Okay, hear me out guys... What if... I wiped everyone's memory so we could cut in line."

"We're supposed to be the good guys. You know that right?"

"Oh, come on Kamiki-san... Do you really feel like waiting?"

Upon hearing the polite honorific, the annoyed girl decided she had enough of the current conversation and would just let Aki do whatever he wanted.

"Go for it."

"Awesome! Okay, here goes nothing... _Consummatus est memoria tua paulisper proximis_!"

A weak glow formed over all of the customers standing in front of the store, and at the exact same moment they all seemed to be in a trance.

"Well? We've got to hurry before it wears off!"

"Ruuuunnn!" Rin was having fun with the slightly unmoral activities that were taking place, and justified it all by the fact that nobody was being hurt and they had saved people multiple times in the past.

The kids had finally made their way inside, the people outside seemed to be back to normal and couldn't remember that their group had ever cut past them.  
'Magic really does come in handy, huh?' Aki thought as he grinned to himself. The group had split up in order to cover every section of the mall, and now he and Rin were in the upper section looking around the manga store.

"Isn't it odd seeing all this manga here that are pretty much our actual lives?" Aki pondered aloud, quietly enough so nobody could overhear him and Rin's conversation.

"Heh heh, yeah... I try not to think about it too much and just enjoy them." Rin agreed as he paid for his merchandise and walked out of the store, ready to go wait in the courtyard where all of the kids had agreed to meet. Aki wasn't quite done yet, so he waved his goodbyes as he walked around before he found a rather dark looking store that supposedly dealt with the paranormal. Taking a few steps inside, Aki could see all kinds of supernatural common items, from tarot cards to Ouija boards.

"May I help you?" a dark haired teen with a nose piercing asked, startling Aki a little.

"Um, yes... Do you have any books of Magic spells? I got kinda into that stuff recently..."

"I think we might have a few... Nice to see people with an interest." the worker responded as he grabbed a book from behind the counter and slid it closer to the now very curious blond. Skimming the pages, Aki saw all kinds of random poems and Latin texts with varying purposes. As far as he could tell, it was the real deal, so he decided to take it with him after paying a fee of 350 yen.

As Aki made his way back to the rest of his friends, he saw everyone sitting down waiting for him with the purchases they had made. Shiemi bought herself a plushy of a creature similar to her own familiar. Izumo seemed to have only bought a few new clothes, and the Kyoto trio didn't appear to buy anything except for food. Rin looked up from his manga and said a hello to Aki before his curiosity overtook him and he asked what Aki had bought.

"I-It's supposed to be a book of Magic. I'm not sure how real it is, though..."

"Well, try one out!" Rin encouraged, looking around to be sure nobody was around to see.

"Okay, this ones in Latin and it says it's for 'Making things more manageable.' _Tolle hoc corpus, et partum a __replica_!"

Suddenly, a glowing white light formed around Aki, as a silhouette seemed to step out of him and stand beside the boy. Once the glow faded, there was an identical Aki standing next to the original, who was wearing a slightly tinted shirt in order to tell the two apart.  
"Really? A twin? How original."

"Sh-Shut up!" The two versions of Aki said in unison before both looked at each other annoyed.

"OSHIRO! CAN YOU LAY OFF THE MAGIC FOR ONCE!" Ryuji yelled at Aki in the way he was used to yelling at Rin.

"B-But... He told me to!" Aki pointed at Rin before trying to run away as Ryuji drop-kicked him.

"I'm just glad it's not me this time." Rin chuckled as he laid his elbow on the Aki clone's shoulder and smiled.

"Hey, it's not all bad. I kicked ass before, and now there are two of me!" The clone said excitedly, trying to make the situation seem a bit brighter.

"I-I make a good point!" Aki smiled and flashed a thumbs up as he picked himself up off the ground. Just then, as if on cue, a scream could be heard from the outside of the food court. Rin flamed up as he made his way towards the source of the noise, with the two Akis following close behind.

"Can those two ever just hold up and strategize for ONE SECOND?" an irritated Izumo asked Shiemi, who just giggled at the question as he waved goodbye to Rin.

"You just have to trust that they'll always come back to you."

The boys could see a large winged creature tormenting the crowd of people who were trying their hardest to escape. The two Akis ran forward in perfect sync as they both said a spell quietly, causing two large pillars of rock to shoot up from the ground and grasp onto the demon's wings, immobilizing it.

"Your turn!" The original Aki called out to Rin as he dashed forward and leapt into the air, delivering a powerful vertical slash through the vulnerable demon. The creature screamed in pain before exploding into dust and feathers. Rin went back to his regular form, and started walking back towards their table.

"Ready to go?" Rin flashed a smile as he laughed at how normal this was for them. Luckily for the exorcists, everyone who had the ability to see demons were too terrified to notice them kill it, so their secret wasn't out. Before leaving the mall though, Aki wanted to make a quick stop back at the magic shop to ask if there was any way to reverse the spell he had cast.

"E-Excuse me?"

"Oh, it's yo- There are two of you?"

"Um... Yeah... I..."

"You mean those spells actually work? They really do?" The store owner looked overjoyed to hear that the magic had actually worked.

"Sorry, it's just I've believed in this stuff for so long, and it means a lot to see it before me!"

"Well, if I'm being totally honest... I use magic a lot. REAL magic."

"I'm just glad somebody can. That's all I need to know, and I'll keep it a secret. I promise." The young attendant handed Aki another book that appeared to be the second of the set with the title "Reversing Magic" on the cover. Aki tried to pay for it, but the worker insisted that payment wasn't necessary.

Several hours had passed since the kids had returned to their dorms from the mall. Aki had said goodbye to himself and stored the spell in his head for future use. Rin had been lying on his bed, reading one of his newly bought mangas when his cell phone rang, with the name Aki displayed brightly on the screen.

"Yo."

"Hey, I've got a question for you..."

"Shoot."

"Is your refrigerator running?"

"What kind of a questi-"

A large looming shadow came over Rin as his glanced over to his open window. A large refrigerator was floating past the window slowly before Rin could see his blond friend standing outside with his hand held up.

"I'm going to have to call you back." Rin said as he hung up, looking down, he could see Aki moving the refrigerator back in through the open window he had taken it out of, with the largest grin on his face.

_'They said I had to practice my powers... But they didn't say I couldn't have fun with it!'_

Aki cleaned up the mess from his little joke and made his way back into the dorm and headed towards Rin's room. To his surprise, Rin was already outside looking through the hallway windows with a serious look on his face. Rin was hardly ever serious, so this worried Aki.

"Everything okay?"

"There's this strange hooded figure outside."

"H-Huh?!"

Aki ran over to the window and looked outside and saw a large figure in a cloak with horns sticking out of the hood. There was no mistaking who it was under that cloak, a creature who he had seen many times inside of the grimoire pages that existed in his head.

"That's Tabularius, Satan's librarian..." Aki blood ran cold as he said this, and it was easy to see he was terrified.

"W-What does he want?!"

"I guess Satan wants me back. I'm long overdue after all..." Aki tried to joke and pretend he wasn't afraid, but he truly was, and Rin could sense that.

"He's going to have to go through me first!" Rin assured Aki that everything would be okay, as the two watched the figure disappear in a flash of darkness.

_End of Chapter 9_  
-

[ Hope you guys liked the chapter! I wanted to make a lighthearted chapter showcasing some magic to get everyone acquainted with Aki's new powers. Also, any fanart of Aki would be greatly appreciated, and you readers have my full permission to do so! Could be a nice way to introduce more people to the story!:)]


	10. Losing A Friend

Aki had been slowly rocking against the wall opposite the window where Rin had first spotted Tabularius for approximately forty minutes. It was as if the boy had entirely snapped. Rin didn't know what to do to snap his friend out of it, and the entire weight of the situation began crashing down on him.

"You're going to be okay." Rin tried his best to sound sure of it, but he honestly wasn't.

"Do you really think so? Or are you lying to make me feel better?"

Rin punched the wall in anger, causing a large dent inside of it.

"What do _you_ want me to say?!"

"I... I don't even know myself. I'm sorry, okay?"

"Tell me more about this librarian. Now."

"Okay... The book tells me that Tabularius created me. Well, not me... But the book itself. He stored all kinds of magical knowledge inside of it and sent it to look for a host, under Satan's orders. Now that the host has rejected the mission, he'll kill me, absorb the book's power and send it to look for a new host." Aki answered the question as best as he could, not even taking a single breath as he blurted out what had been his nightmare for the past three weeks. This very moment had plagued his visions for weeks, and he felt entirely helpless.

"We're just going to have to kick his ass then, huh?" Rin said with an evil grin and Aki couldn't help but laugh.

Aki sighed. "Easier said than done."

* * *

The two boys left the dorm and were beginning to walk towards the True Cross Cafeteria, when suddenly a puff of smoke appeared before them. A hooded figure began stepping out as Aki grabbed Rin's hand and started running.

"He came back!"

Rin started rushing at the smoke as he broke free from Aki's grip, but was promptly sent flying backwards as an unseen force knocked him unconscious against a tree.

"Ri-" Aki couldn't finish his cry for his hurt friend as the creature pushed him into the ground, it's claws wrapped around his throat. Tabularius took a ceremonial dagger out of his robe and stabbed Aki in the stomach, causing the boy to scream in pain and cough up blood.

"Get... The hell... off me! _converterentur ad gelu_!" As the spell completed, an icicle formed in Aki's hand which he stabbed into the creature's side. Slowly, a cocoon of ice began slowly forming around it's legs and spreading upwards. Before it could completely freeze, Tabularius disappeared into smoke once again, leaving Aki to slowly bleed out on the pavement.

It took several minutes for Rin to come to again, and when he did he saw his best friend lying on the ground, with a large gaping wound in his torso. Tears formed in Rin's eyes as he ran to him, thankfully, Aki was still alive. However, the boy had only ten minutes left at best. His breathing was quick and shallow and the terror in his eyes was apparent, yet he still tried to put on a brave face and smile to calm Rin down.

"No! This can't be happening! Please... Don't die, Aki!"

"He... He couldn't take the power from me."

"Huh?"

"He wasn't able to take the power... It won't pass on. The world is at least safe from The Grimoire..."

"_Don't just give up for something like that_!" Rin wasn't just sad anymore, he was absolutely pissed. He didn't want Aki to just give up on life, even if it DID mean the great evil he was meant to be wasn't going to pass on to someone else.

Aki had decided that if he had let himself die here, then the world would at least be saved. He thought it was smart, at least he'd die a hero. However, seeing the pain it was putting his best friend through, he couldn't picture going through with it anymore. It was either being cowardly, or not wanting to hurt another, he couldn't tell. Finally, he spoke up with an idea. Magic had always helped before, why can't it save me now?

"There's a spell to heal... The price of healing requires you to feel the pain twice over... Are you up for that?"

"Of course! It's for a friend, I don't care what happens to me!"

Aki chuckled as he thought 'Classic Rin..." before he pulled a small book out of his pocket. He had written inside of it earlier in the week with the most useful spells he had ever found, and pointed Rin towards the one for healing a wound. Rin's flames glowed bright as he began chanting the words, putting a hand over Aki's stab wound. Rin gritted his teeth at the intense sharp pain in his gut, it felt like his organs were being shredded inside of him. That pain was nothing compared to the joy Rin felt seeing the wound on Aki disappear. It was as if time itself was reversing, the blood covering the pavement was flowing in reverse as the cut closed up. The injured boy grinned before he passed out from both physical and magical exhaustion.

* * *

Nobody was able to restrain the purple haired girl who was pushing past anybody who tried to stop her from seeing Aki. She ran inside of his hospital room to see the blond boy sleeping peacefully. After all, Rin didn't possess very much magical power, so the healing spell had only done the bare minimum. Aki had been rushed to the hospital by Yukio as he questioned Rin about how this had happened. The sight of the bandages wrapped around him sent a shiver down Izumo's spine, and she shuddered as she imagined what would happen if he had died. Her heart hurt so much just knowing he was injured, but the pain of never seeing him again? That would kill her. The worried girl's mental torment was cut short as the object of her pain began stirring in his sleep, before he opened his bright, colorful eyes and trained them on her. "I-Izumo..." The tone in his voice was cheerful, that he couldn't hide. Izumo couldn't help but smile back, delighted in the fact that Aki instantly had cheered up knowing she was there.

"You know how worried I was?"

"No... How worried were you?" He said with a smile as Izumo buried her head in his shoulder.

"A hell of a lot." Izumo lifted up her head as she looked into Aki's eyes. "Next time someone wants to kill you, at least send me a text message. I doubt they would want to go anywhere near you if they knew what I'd do to them afterwards." Izumo was absolutely terrifying with the threats coming out of her mouth, but the message behind it was too sweet for Aki to do anything but laugh. "I'm sorry I worried you." and with that, the smiling boy was asleep yet again.

* * *

Rin opened the door of a bright hospital room. The walls were pure white, making the splash of color of flowers that lay next to his unconscious friend shine that much brighter. He walked over to the blinds and shut them, an effort to help the injured boy sleep. Next to him, in a chair was Izumo Kamiki, a girl usually viewed as heartless who seemed to have fallen asleep ensuring Aki was safe. Rin noticed what appeared to be tears running down her cheeks and slightly red eyes, but decided to leave it alone. He sat down in the chair opposite of the sleeping girl, and just waited. He waited for what felt like hours, listening to the slow tick tock of the hanging clock. Eventually, he too felt his vision blurring as he began drifting into sleep, but was awoken at the sight of Aki waking up.

"You're awake!" Rin cheered as he stood up in his chair before his smile faded. "I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you. I swore that I would, and he still nearly got you... I-"

"Don't blame yourself. I told you he wanted me, and he nearly got me. Nothing unexpected happened."

"Well, I'm just glad you're alive. Next time, he'll be the one needing hospitalization." Rin's anger was touching, but Aki knew that there wasn't much point to fighting against Tabularius. He would eventually win. I'm going to eventually die to this thing, so why give the people who care so much for me any false hope? A single tear ran down Aki's cheek and then he said something that he couldn't keep himself from blurting out.

"I need you guys to know that I love you all. You're my best friends, and I'm glad I had the chance to meet you all."

"You say that like you're going away, Aki. Please don't say it like that." It was Rin's turn to try and stop himself from crying, but he just couldn't. Here he was, in a hospital room with his childhood friend. This friend was stating plain and simple that he would die, and nothing could be done about it. "Look. I'm the goddamn son of Satan. If anyone can help you, it's me. So please, just believe in me a little bit, okay?"

"I didn't say I wasn't going to put up one hell of a fight. But, Rin?"

"Yeah?"

"I need you to do something for me. Promise me that you will."

"Do what, exactly?" Rin could tell this wasn't going to be good, and felt an ache in his chest as he waited to hear the request. Slowly, his best friend was slipping away. He was perfectly healthy in front of him, yet it still felt like Aki was dying right in front of his very eyes.

"If we fail, and can't kill Tabularius..."

The ticking of the clock seemed to slow down. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The entire world was filled with nothing but silence.

"...I want you to end me yourself."

* * *

The blunette couldn't be sure of how long he sat there and stared at the boy in front of him. He clenched his fists in saddened anger before he quickly muttered, "Okay." and stood up from his seat. Just then, a smiling young nurse entered the room and informed the boys that visiting hours were over, before lightly shaking Izumo awake. As the pig-tailed girl and the demon teen left the hospital room, they couldn't help but get choked up at the sight of Aki waving lightly at them, his usual cheerful smile still lay upon his face.

Yukio Okumura stood at his desk, his hands on the polished wood surface as he held his head down. He was deep in thought and for the first time in years could form no words. Rin had informed his stressed brother about everything Aki had told him, and by Yukio's reaction, none of this could possibly be labeled as 'good'. Lifting his head up at last, the young teacher spoke up to the class of awaiting students, with Rin sitting front-row anxious to hear what he had to say.

"I'm afraid to say that our only chance of saving Aki is full-on offense," he cleared his throat as he looked out of the window, a single tear rolling down his cheek, "Without him here, we're obviously losing a lot of our battle power, but we can't risk him. Not with what is at stake." Surprisingly, one of the students raised a hand, as Yukio nodded at Konekomaru to speak.

"I think I can develop a plan. If we really must fight."

* * *

The blond psychic lay in his bed, struggling to get some rest after a long lecture on his health and well being from a nice, but persistent nurse. Just as he was finally about to fall asleep, a familiar flash passed over him. He saw brief glimpses of his best friends in battle against Tabularius, who was very capable with Dark Magic. The results were grim, and he hoped that he wasn't too late. After he snapped out of the magical trance, he did his best to sit up in his bed, gritting his teeth in order to stop himself from yelping out in pain. As he slowly shuffled over towards the empty wall, he lay his head against it as he tried to regain his breath as he tried his hardest to come up with a way to save them. Finally, he muttered the healing spell over again, now that his magical energies were replenished from his slumber. The boy made a rope out of sheets and climbed out of the window, praying that he wouldn't be too late.

"Bon, chant with me! We have to weaken it as much as possible. Rin! Shima! Full-on offense!" Konekomaru shouted out orders as he hid behind the stairwell of the great hall to True Cross Academy. The strange demon figure before them was cloaked in the same red material it had been in earlier when it attacked Rin and Aki, and Rin noticed that it's feet appeared to be covered in a thin sheet of ice. The demon and the pink-haired youth both charged at the creature with their weapons held high, feeling his sword connect with the creature's body, he slashed downwards roughly, and was surprised to feel no resistance. Shocked, Rin looked at the demon again, just in time to see that anything on the solid plane was phasing right through it's body as if it's body was made of shadows themselves. Shima tried to jam his staff into the creatures stomach, but was launched into the air by a rock pillar that had appeared below him.

Ryuji rushed to the side of his injured friend and crouched by his side. "Shima! Are you okay?" The pink-haired boy tried his best to stand up with the support of the staff, and nearly fell in the process. "I'll be fine... How is Rin doing?" Both of the boys glanced over and saw a rather un-progressive battle unfolding before them. Any attacks made by Rin were either shrugged off or avoided through some magical means, thankfully this demon was using fire magic and that had no effect on Rin. Just as Rin dodged a lightning bolt that had narrowly missed his head, two white foxes leaped at the creature and surrounded it, as the purple-haired girl named Izumo chanted ""Quaver, Gently Quaver! Right of the Quavering Soul!" Surprisingly, the creature actually reacted and seemed to be writhing in pain before an unexpected face pushed his way in through the school's doors.

* * *

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Yukio called to his friend who was supposed to be bed-ridden, but his question went unanswered as the opened a palm towards the howling cloaked figure and chanted a spell in his mind. A pulse of white light was sent rocketing at the demon, and upon making contact sent the demon crashing through a wall. The boy ran over to his friends' sides and noticed very irritated and worried faces before him. "Guys, I'm fine. I had a vision of this fight, and I'll be damned if I let what I saw actually happen." None of the faces seemed to take very much delight in that, considering it appeared that their efforts to kill this demon would have resulted in their deaths. The cheerful Green Man tamer made her way over to the boy before wrapping him in a hug, she quickly ran over to Shima's side and provided him with some numbing medication that was made of crushed leaves that her familiar had summoned under her command. Yukio glanced briefly around the room, wondering why the demon had not come back to attack in such a long time. A dark, snaking being of smoke slithered by his peripheral vision, but before the young teacher who could warn anyone, the smoke quickly formed into the cloaked figure. It's claws were wrapped around Izumo's throat as it began slowly choking the life out of her. Any attacks launched at the demon were entirely repelled by some unseen force, before the students resorted to throwing themselves at the creature. Each tackle ended with an unseen force sending them across the room, and Aki could only stare in horror as the girl he loved slowly died.

"No! Not her!" Aki yelled as he concentrated and did something he swore he would never do. He fully opened the book inside of his mind, and unleashed the immense power within. Midnight black energy surrounded his body, as he raised a hand a sent the figure floating into the air. The girl that was previously in it's grasp fell safely to the floor before collapsing due to the lack of oxygen. The energy-surged blond sighed in relief as he noticed her breathing, before he raised both hands and shouted, "Begone!" and watched as the figure exploded entirely, magical energy surging through it's body at dangerous speeds, causing walls and stairs to collapse inwards. Konekomaru grabbed the unconscious girl and ran with the rest of the group outside, as Aki slowly seemed to come out of the magical high. Once safely outside, Izumo came to and asked a simple question: "W-Where's Aki?" The group whirled their heads around at the wreckage, and saw their friend entirely unscathed, as a shield of glowing white light slowly faded. The boy smiled warmly before collapsing from the intense magic he had just unleashed, but when the boy opened his eyes again he found himself in a familiar room. The room was circular, and entirely white with a pedestal standing in the very center. Instead of a book in it's place, there now lay nothing. A boy stepped out from one of the many columns that supported the building. The boys face and looks were identical to his own.

"Who are you?" Aki asked with terror in his voice. He backed up further into the wall as the boy stepped closer to him.

"I believe they call me The Grimoire, do they not?" The boy responded in a voice much like his own. Something about this voice was different though, it sounded hollow, and dark. A grim smirk crossed the boy's features before he laughed and said something that chilled Aki's spine. "However, I believe I'll just refer to myself as you now. Now that you've unleashed my full power, I can take over your body for myself. Fulfill that mission I was tasked with many ages ago." Aki reached a hand forward to grasp at the boy, but he vanished in a flash of light.

"Wait! Don't go!" Aki's voice wavered with fear, and suddenly he was alone. He slowly slid down the wall as he slumped over, defeated.

* * *

"Thank god you're awake!" Izumo had tears running down her cheeks as she held the hugged a blond boy tightly to her. He smiled as he tried to reassure her that everything was fine. That he was perfectly okay and just needed to get some rest. Everyone around the boy was happy to see he was okay, and began rejoicing in their recent victory against Tabularius who was now toast. The Grimoire smiled with a mouth that was not it's own. It laughed with a foreign voice, and hugged with another's body. Leaving the real person trapped inside of the confounds of it's mind to cry and slowly rock.

"What have I done?" Aki asked himself, staring at the white walls for answers that would never come.

* * *

_CHAPTER COMPLETE_


	11. A Fight With Me, Myself, and I

Chapter 12  
**How I Got Into A Fight With Me, Myself, and I**

Updated: 4/29/2013 at 11:00 PM EST

(As much as I tell myself I'll fully finish chapters before releasing them, I want everyone to know that I haven't forgotten the series... Serious events are in store, so I hope everyone enjoys this little sneak peek :D)

Rin sat in the backseat of a white van from 2003 as he stared out of the window. One of his Cram School teachers had been assigned to drive Yukio, Aki, and himself to some sort of night club for a mission. Rin sighed rather loudly as he played with the window buttons. Normally, the navy blue haired boy would have been ecstatic to go on a mission like this and would be chattering with Aki over all of the details, but recently the two boys had grown apart. Aki seemed different somehow... More cold and in charge. Either his powers had grown, or he just stopped caring about boundaries because the boy seemed to take charge and totally wreck anything during the missions the three took together. Rin knew he would barely even have time to unsheathe his sword before Aki made their target collapse into a pile of ashes.

The van pulled up into an alley as the three boys made their way out, there was a rather large line at the club they had pulled up to and for a brief moment all three of them had spaced out in awe of the building. It was covered in flashing signs and advertisements, blaring loud dance music was coming from the open doorway and a large bouncer stood in front of the entrance. Cutting through the line, Aki made his way directly in front of the bouncer.

"What do you kids think you're doing? 21 or older, get out." Aki seemed to actually think for a moment, but then decided to grab the bouncer's arm and flip him violently over his shoulder.

"Not in the mood today." The blond exclaimed, stepping on the man as he stomped inside of the club. The bystanders in the long line all had their mouths opened in shock as Rin and Yukio ran to catch up to their now very violent friend. What had happened to the cheerful, shy boy they once knew? He surely hadn't grown up in such a way over the course of four days... Had the destruction that Tabularius had brought really effected him in such a way?

* * *

Yukio had finally decided to speak up, as he placed a hand on the blond's shoulder. "You know the backup security could show up soon and that could cause some problems..." The young teacher sighed and braced for insults or to be ignored, but surprisingly, Aki responded like his old self. "Oh... Sorry! Guess I didn't quite think this through, huh?" The boy smiled and scratched the back of his head in mild embarrassment before his silent and cold attitude seemed to wash over him like a wave.

"Let's just keep an eye out for anything weird, okay?" The smile was still there, but this one seemed very forced... Rin wasn't buying it at all.

"Roger that." Rin agreed and maintained a cheerful attitude. No need to cause any more trouble, after all... Besides, Aki would return to normal soon. He's probably just in a bit of a phase after all that happened recently. The demon boy kept trying to explain this to himself, but he couldn't make himself believe it. A sinking feeling in his gut told him his old best friend was either gone, or fading fast. The boy had no idea how right he was. Suddenly, an ear-piercing screech came from one of the partying girls. Ramblings of "It just ran right past me!" and "She wasn't human!" could be heard as Yukio ran towards an open back exit that the 'thing' had ran out of. Rin finally got a good look at it, covered in an over-sized coat, a skeletal creature ran as far away from them as it could. The demon managed to shrug off a shot in the knee cap from Yukio, which led the group to believe it couldn't feel, or at the very least had high tolerance for bullets. Chasing the monster into an alley, it had backed itself up into a corner and right when the boys felt it had no escape, it slowly began vanishing into mist.

"Yukio! Stop it!" Aki shouted, as the brunette threw a holy water grenade that exploded and stunned the beast. A tarp next to a dumpster caught Aki's eye, and pulling the sheet off of it revealed a large mirror. The boy quickly sent a foot into it, cracking it into several pieces. Then, pointing an open hand at the demon, Aki yelled "_permoveo!"_ A spell that sent the glass shards into the creature's torso at incredible speeds, slicing the skeletal monstrosity to pieces before it eventually vanished. Rin noticed that the spell appeared to be too strong, because a trail of blood was now running down Aki's nose. As Rin was about to ask if he was okay, Aki appeared dizzy and nearly fainted.

"I'll be fine, guys. Just chill already." The blond tried to shrug off that anything had happened as he wiped the blood away into a rag, but suddenly the real Aki trapped inside saw an opportunity to break free. "Guys, listen up! This isn't me, the book is possessing me! Don't trust me, okay? Don't!" Rin and Yukio looked shocked and didn't know what to believe, as the person they thought to be their friend regained control, a look of annoyance crossed his features.

"Well, son of a bitch! I was hoping to keep this up a little bit longer... Nice knowing you guys!" The boy raised a fist and made a punching motion at the two brothers, sending a shock-wave of dark energy at them that blasted them into the alley brick wall. The last thing Rin saw before falling unconscious was the False Aki vanishing into a pile of shadow.

* * *

[True Cross - Aki's Dorm Room]

"Why didn't we see this coming? I knew there was something weird about him!" Rin slammed a fist down on a desk in annoyance. Not only had they failed to pick up on the demonic spell book possessing their friend, but it had now entirely eluded them and was out free to destroy whatever it damn well pleased!

"Nii-san, getting angry about this isn't helping anything. We need to look through his spell books and look for anything that can help." Yukio scolded as he scanned through yet another book that had nothing within it that could help them. The False Aki was still missing, with no reports of his whereabouts. Right when the boys were about to give up, a seemingly exhausted Renzo Shima appeared in the doorway. The pink-haired boy was panting as he did his best to stutter out a message. "H-He... He was spotted outside of a movie theater today! He appears to be the prime suspect of an arsonist case..." Clutching a piece of paper that appeared to be a printed transcript of a recent news broadcast, the Okumura Brothers made their way to the address, praying their childhood friend could still be saved.

* * *

[Inside Aki's Mind]

Slumped against a wall, the Real Aki looked exhausted and totally defeated. The one who had claimed his body stood over him, looking fairly pissed off. "You finally give up? That little stunt of yours really messed everything up." He sent a kick into the boys side which sent him sprawling on the ground. Aki remained on the ground until the fake wasn't looking and then swept the copy's legs out from under him. With a strong kick to the head, the fake was unconscious. However, it didn't take long for the being to fade away back into the real world. "Damn!" Aki muttered before turning towards the book in the center of the room. The book was now covered in some sort of dark shield, and was releasing dark energy into the air. That was his only hope of reversing this, but how would he even get to it? A brief flash of earlier today came into his mind, when the fake version of him was weakened, he was able to break through and send a message to his friends. That shield also weakened!

"Guess I'm counting on you, Rin... Kick his ass!"


End file.
